Up until last week, Facebook required pages to run contests through some kind of third party app. This had caused some page owners to shy away from the concept of having to use yet another app to run a contest for their fans or Facebook friends, and Facebook users to have shy away from contests because they would have to allow access to yet another app.

With changes made by Facebook last week, administrators of pages can now use Facebook itself to run a contest without having to utilize a third party app.