Social Media 101 for the Self Storage Operator: The Basics and the DOs and DONTs of Facebook

 

Welcome Back!

As I mentioned last week, with this week’s post we’re going to cover the basics of Facebook as well as the DOs and DON’Ts.

The reason why I’m leading off with Facebook is, simply put, Facebook is the largest and most commonly used Social Media on the Internet. How common is it? As of January 2011 there were 600 million registered Facebook users and chances are that by the end of 2011 there’ll be 1 billion.

So much like e-mail and instant messaging, Facebook has become an ingrained part of our culture and there’s a better chance than not that your facility already has a Facebook page (And if for some reason you don’t, go ahead and register at: www.facebook.com), but there’s also a better chance than not that not too many people know the page exists other than other Self Storage Owners and Operators who happen to be on Facebook.

Now I’m not going to chastise anyone for only being friends with other owner/operators, it is very important to network with your peers, the whole issue with only networking with your peers is that they aren’t going to rent units from you.

The whole point of your facility being on Facebook (or any social media for that matter) is to attract possible renters and from what I’ve experienced since I first joined the MiniCo team is owners and operators are not taking advantage of the simple community building tools which are made available to them on the Facebook site and are instead depending on the Friend’s suggestions Facebook provides.

This is all well and good for National organizations such as the Messenger, Inside Self Storage, Sparefoot, PhoneSmart, and OpenTech, these organizations want as broad of an audience as possible. But if you’re Store-All Self Storage in Eugene, Oregon, well you need to focus regionally and believe it or not, focusing regionally is much easier then you think.

So what’s your first step in creating a regional Facebook marketing campaign? First thing’s first, log onto Facebook, next go to the ACCOUNT tab on the top right hand side of the screen, click and then click on EDIT FRIENDS, this will bring you to the edit friends page, the next thing you’ll want to do is click on the FIND FRIENDS option on the left hand side of the screen. Next, click on OTHER TOOLS at the bottom and then select Find Friends, Classmates, and Co-workers. Once you’ve done this on the next page you’ll check mark is CURRENT CITY (By the way, folks, when creating your Facebook profile, one of the biggest DOs is to always include your current city. I honestly see way too many owner and operators who do not provide this information.) once you done this, Facebook will provide you with literally hundreds—if not thousands—of people in your hometown who you can become friends with.

Now remember, Facebook sets certain limitations when making friend requests, namely that you can only request 20 friends per day and if you go over this amount, your account can be suspended for 24 hours or if you habitually go over this number of requests, the account can be suspended for up to two weeks or permanently, so carefully monitor yourself.

Also, the one piece of advice I can give you regarding Social Media Marketing (or Marketing in general) is that building an audience is a slow process. Your Facebook page is not going to blow up over night, so be patient and consistent.

With that said, let’s get into to the DOs and DON’Ts

We’ll touch on the DOs first:

·        DO interact. The biggest issue I see with most Owners and Operators is a simple lack of interaction. When someone leaves a comment on one of your posts, make sure to respond. Now I’m not saying hover over your computer waiting for someone to respond, but if you find yourself in between jobs through out the day and you’re in front of the keyboard, log on and respond, it takes two seconds. Also, when it comes to interaction, make sure you’re visiting your friends pages and commenting on their posts. Integrating with the online community goes a long way in building relationships. So when one of your friends is getting ready to move or they’ve outgrown their current home and need a place to store their things, chances are they’ll remember you commenting on their video or status

·        DO provide content. Now what does this mean? It means provide photos of your facility, of your staff, of auctions you’ve recently held. Update your status at least once a day. Providing consistent content keeps you in the news feed, so when your friend log on and scan the Facebook homepage you’re facility will be a prevalent part of that feed.

Alright, now for a few DON’Ts

• DON’T make it all about yourself. Another issue I run into far too often is Owner/Operators who use their Facebook page like a billboard and all they post are move in special and coupon promotions, which is fine, you want people to know about these things, but it doesn’t exactly make for an engaging page. So along with those posts about your facility, try including general interest posts that you found interesting though out the day. Maybe a funny YouTube video or an article about the local veterans organization, an online comic strip…Honestly it can be just about anything, just as long as it doesn’t lead you down the road to our next don’t….

• DON’T comment on or post overtly religious or political statements. We’re all passionate about our faith and our political positions, both are apart of our every day lives. But when using any form of Social Media, think of it (for a lack of a better analogy) like a bar. You don’t talk about religion or politics at a bar, so don’t do it on Facebook. And if you feel compelled to do so, create a personal account. Remember, you’re a business and nothing will alienate potential customer quicker than mishandling these subjects.

• DON’T immediately post a link to your website or blog to the wall of a new friend after they’ve accepted your friend request. As a matter of fact, never do this, posting a link to someone’s page is just bad form. Remember, you’re trying to integrate, not alienate

So that’s what I have for today, chances are quite a few of you are doing exactly what I’m suggesting and you’re simply nodding your head in agreement with what I’m writing about, but for those of you who aren’t using these basic techniques, I hope you apply them to what you’re doing online.

And for those of you who are saying to themselves, all of this seems like it’s too hard or will take up too much time, trust me, it won’t. All this takes is 20 minutes a day, and I imagine you all have 20 minutes a day?  But most importantly, remember to remain consistent.

Hope to see you all next week when I cover the basics and DOs and DON’Ts of Twitter

Social Media 101 for The Self Storage Operator: An Introduction

I talk with a lot Self Storage Owners and Operators, either through e-mails or over the phone. Some have been in the business for decades, others have only been operators for only a couple of years , and without fail, most of the conversations I have with Owner/Operators lead to sales and marketing i.e., How Do I Fill More Units? How Do I Increase Profitability and How Can I Do This By Utilizing Social Media?

For most Owner/Operators, their biggest struggle isn’t making their facility better, but how to generate word of mouth and expand their core of customers.

But  generating great word of mouth can be a huge pain in the butt.

At one time, creating great word of mouth was a bit easier, as long as you had strong curb appeal and an add in the yellow pages you were typically guaranteed a 65% occupancy rate or better. All of this, of course, changed with widespread use of the Internet. Yes, curb appeal and strong customer service were still your bread and butter, but more and more, customers were turning to the Internet to find a facility and people weren’t paying attention to the yellow pages or flyer campaigns or even discounted rentals. They were going to Internet search engines and, yes, they were turning to social media sites such as Facebook and Linkedin.

Of course, owners and operators in turn charged to the Internet, making sure that they had websites that were just as attractive as their facilities and they were creating accounts on the top three social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.

The major issue is, now that these facilities were on the major social networking sites, what to do with them? How do you generate new customers and income from these sites?

Most owners and operators were stumped. Sure, they were networking with other owners and operators all across the country, but they weren't attracting new customers and more often than not, facility owners and managers would become frustrated with social media and lack of lead conversion and they would allow their accounts to lay fallow or they would simply cancel them and solely depending on their facilities website to generate traffic.Which is fine, but in my opinion, most owners and operators are missing a huge area of opportunity.

I'll be the first to admit that I've only been in the self storage industry for five months now, but in those five months, I've spent 97% of my days learning the online behaviors of owners and operators and what I've learned is that most facility operators are utilizing social media incorrectly.

So as a way to help owners and operators create successful social media campaigns, I've decided to launch a series of weekly blog posts covering the DOs and DON'Ts of Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin for self storage owners and operators, as well as cover other forms of Social Media that may give you an edge over the competition.

Also, through the course of these posts, I would like to encourage you to ask questions through the comments section of the blog or you can contact me directly via e-mail at: krawson@minico.com

I hope you enjoy the posts and I'll see you next week with my first post on the DOs and DON'Ts of Facebook.

Self-Storage & Social Media

The way businesses communicate with their customers and potential customers has changed. Using social media to share information about your company is more critical than ever. According to a study by Forrester Research, over 80% of Americans use social media on at least a monthly basis. If you are not effectively using social media, you are missing out on crucial marketing opportunities.

A couple of months ago, we put on a webinar titled "Self-Storage & Social Media: How to Make it Work Without Wasting Time & Money."

If you are interested in putting social media to work for your self-storage business, this is a great webinar to watch for tips and ideas on how to get started.

The webinar, presented by Derek Naylor, President of Storage Marketing Solutions and Rebecca Morse, focuses on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube, and:

 

•The Ever-Growing Social Network

•Live Demonstrations of Social Media Sites

•Time-Saving Tools to Increase Efficiency

•How Self-Storage Facilities Are Using Social Media

•How to Get Started & Best Practices for Your Facility

To view the webinar in our archives, CLICK HERE.