Important Facebook Change for Fan pages…Contests

As with any online company, Facebook has made numerous changes this past year.  If you have a Facebook Fan page one of the most important change is regarding Contests.

You can no longer hold a contest on your Fan page all on your own – Status updates, New Fans, etc.  The contest must be entered thru a Facebook application, then be approved by Facebook.   Yes, you may have already heard about this, but it’s important to discuss again.

From my initial insights, this means you are now going to have to pay a 3rd party to hold your contests if you post them on Facebook.  Is it worth it?  Is it merely a way for Facebook to earn more revenue?  I’m going to put my retail site up as a guinea pig and see how it goes.  I’ll post back here with the process, including the company I have chosen to use.

If anyone else has already done this I’d love to hear your feedback.  Who did you use?  What did it cost?  Would you do it again?