Have you ever thought … how can I collect more than email addresses on Facebook? It’s actually pretty easy. Currently, Facebook offers businesses the ability to have consumers sign-up for something like a newsletter, however the only fields available for this are name and email address. If you want to collect other information from these folks you’ll need to first get a Google Doc account. You’ll also need an app like Woobox which will allow you to embed Google Doc code into Facebook and automatically export Facebook data back into your Google Doc account.

In order to create a Google Doc account, you must have a gmail account. Once logged into Google Docs, you’ll need to create a type of document called a ‘form’. When building these forms you can create custom fields such as name, street address, city, etc … We’ve seen folks create forms for surveys or sign-up forms used for things such as a catalog request. The possibilities are endless. You can even set-up automatic notifications when consumers submit their information, and later merge this information with your house file.

The Woobox app makes it easy to embed Google Doc ‘forms’ to your Facebook wall, or to add a permanent tab on your Facebook page.

Social media can be a game changer if you know how to use it effectively. You don’t need any programming experience to get this up and running. For more specific information on how to capture Facebook data try Googling “Facebook and Google Docs”.