Google+ for Self Storage

Google + is a fast growing social networking site operated by technology giant, Google Inc. The site has been gaining notoriety over the past few months and continues to build its user base daily. How can it benefit your self storage business? Google + has pages for businesses, similar to Facebook pages, where you can list and promote your self storage facility. Here are a few tips in order to help you navigate this fairly new social network:

• Choose a suitable display picture – Unlike Facebook’s profile photos, the Google + profile photo must be square. The dimensions for the picture is 200px x 200px and the thumbnail is 48px x 48px. Once you have chosen a picture, you must crop it into a square so keep this in mind when selecting a profile photo.

• Create keywords to promote your self storage facility – There are three fields where you can enter text – the Tagline, Introduction, and Contact/Website fields. In the Tagline section, use only about 10 words. Anything longer may get cut off. You can provide more details about your self storage company in the About summary section. These pages get indexed by Google, so ensure that you fill these fields out with your complete information.

• Promote your profile – After creating the page, add a +1 button to your company website if you have one. By adding this button, visitors to your company website can easily visit your Google + profile without going to an external site.

• Add additional photos - There is a scrapbook area where page administrators can add photos of the business. Since the Google + is plain when compared to other sites, you can use the photo feature to make your page more eye-catching and interesting.

Share your Google + page with all your employees and have them share it within their own Google + pages in order to increase engagement. Suitable keywords, photos, and adequate promotion will ensure that your Google + business page makes a strong contribution to your online marketing efforts.

North Miami Beach, FL-based startup USSelfStorageLocator.com has reached a milestone and have partnered with all four of the largest self storage companies that utilize self storage aggregators in less than 13-months after launching. USelfStorageLocator.com, a nationwide self storage aggregator, provides customers the ability to locate, save, and rent self storage online anywhere, anytime.

Recently, USSelfStorageLocator.com achieved a rarity in the self storage industry, when they reached a marketing agreement with each of the four largest self storage companies (in total square-footage) in the United States, according to Inside Self Storage, that utilize self storage aggregators.

Other self storage aggregators have been in business longer, but USSelfStorageLocator.com offers the best overall package that appeases customers as well as owner/operators alike.

Victor Dante, Founder and CEO at USSelfStorageLocator.com, expressed his enthusiasm and zeal for the success and continued rapid growth of USSelfStorageLocator.com. “I’m extremely elated that our hard work and efforts have brought about overall great results,” said Victor Dante. “Becoming such a major player in such a relatively short-time, is truly a testament to our outstanding product—especially in today’s economy,” said Victor Dante.

USSelfStorageLocator.com was created to provide consumers with the most efficient user-friendly experience to locate self storage online. Cutting-edge technology has enabled USSelfStorageLocator.com to implement various features that allow self storage renters the ability to locate, save, and rent self storage online anywhere, anytime. For example, customers can search for San Diego Self Storage, or any city or zip code and locate any facility using USSelfStorageLocator.com.

• In addition to becoming marketing partners with some of self storage’s most successful companies, USSelfStorageLocator.com has done a solid job of signing on various independent self storage facilities. Customers who use USSelfStorageLocator.com can find the following features:

• Facility listings with unit sizes, prices, specials/discounts, addresses, phone numbers. Facility amenities such as automatic and online payment capabilities, packaging supplies, office hours, security cameras, truck rentals.

USSelfStorageLocator.com offers the user amazing blogs, tips, expert suggestions, and useful information in all fields related to self storage. Their website is incredibly user friendly, attractive, and most of all allows customers the ability to locate and acquire self storage.

Website Traffic

If you have a self storage website, you should know by now that a lot of work goes into making it successful. You need sufficient content, a user-friendly interface and, most importantly, website visitors. Quality content is nothing if people aren’t willing to visit you self storage website to see what it is all about. Generating website traffic does not have to be expensive. Here are a few free and relatively easy ways in which you can increase your web traffic and expand your reach on the world wide web:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Try to design your site around a keyword strategy. Include all the relevant keywords related to self storage and be sure to research proper web page optimization. You can read more about SEO in our blog here http://usselfstoragelocator.com/self-storage-blog/seo

• Guest Blogging - Invite bloggers from the self storage industry to post on your site from time to time. By doing this, you will get traffic from their websites because their readers are likely to follow them to read their post on your site. You can even blog on other websites, thus increasing your online visibility even more.

• Email Marketing - You can add a subscribe option to your website in order to assist with building a mailing list. Once you have done so, send interested individuals consistent emails. Include links to the pages on your website that you want persons to visit the most.

• Research Market Leaders - Look for the most influential forums, blogs, online magazines, and podcasts that are currently leading the self storage industry. Join and post regular comments and build a solid online relationship with other members. This will help to get your name out there and drive more traffic back to your website.

• Social media - There are numerous social media sites that are free to use. You can learn more about them here – Self Storage Online Marketing. Maintain active accounts and interact regularly with other persons. This is also a great way to connect with and research industry leaders. You can even use it to keep an eye on your competition.

These are just a few ways in which you can drive traffic to your website absolutely free of cost. Each method listed requires a bit of work but the pay off in the end will be worth it. You will need to consistently work on whichever one you choose as the results will not happen overnight. For more information on what online marketing can do for your self storage facility, check out our other blog posts right here on our Self Storage Blog.

Blogging About Self Storage

Blogging is an essential part of online marketing. It provides a platform where you can speak to your potential audience in an informal and conversational manner. As a self storage business owner, you can start your own blog to educate potential customers about the benefits of choosing your facility versus the competition. Before getting started, you should take note of the essential elements that make a good blog:

• Content - This is perhaps the most crucial element. The content you create is what drives visitors to your blog. Ensure that it is not only relevant to your business, but is also engaging to those who read it. Practice makes perfect so the more content you create, the better you will become at it. You can start out by providing general information about your facility. Then, you can add topics relating to self storage, introduce your employees, and post any information about your facility which you deem relevant.

• Design – Simplicity is key. Do not distract readers from the most important part of your blog – the content. Keep your design uncomplicated to ensure that what you write will be easy to read. Avoid making your page too busy or colorful.

• Hosting – You can decide whether you want to host your blog yourself or use a free blogging service. If you do not have a website for your self storage business, sites such as Blogger, Wordpress, Weebly, Tumblr, and LiveJournal provide free hosting services. However, your domain name will include the name of the free service you choose e.g. myblog.blogger.com. The free services often have blog templates, which will help you choose a design. Some of these free services, such as Wordpress, offer paid options where you can get more features. The advantages of using free hosting sites include the simplicity it offers (you do not have to know HTML), the design is already laid out, and it saves money. However, there is limited customer support and very low bandwidth with free services. Paid services offer additional features such as more design themes, assistance from customer support, the ability to add advertisements to your blog to make money, and of course, a personalized domain name. There is still some work involved with paid hosting services, e.g. WordPress’s visual editor requires some understanding of HTML. TearPad, iPage, JustHost, and BlueHost are all paid services which you can explore if you choose to go this route.

• Interaction – Consider allowing comments on your blog to interact with your readers. This way, you can get an idea of which topics work and the ones that do not. This also provides an opportunity for customers to ask questions if they need clarification on what you post. You can link your social media account to your blog so that when persons comment, it will also display in their respective social media profiles. This increases the visibility of your blog. For example, if you integrate Facebook with your blog, when persons are logged into their Facebook accounts and comment on a post it will be displayed as a story on their wall. You can include links to other social networking sites which will allow your readers to share your post across those platforms as well.

If your blog has the key elements listed above, then you should be able to build a substantial following of people who will read it on a regular basis. A blog is simple enough to start and manage. You can ask your employees for help in creating content. For even more variety, update your blog with videos and make a short post describing the content of the video. You can also post pictures e.g. of promotional events, your facility, and employees.

Feel free to go in whichever direction you are most comfortable with, which will help you get your point across to self storage customers. Some people prefer a more casual style of writing while others may want to keep it strictly professional. You will just need to find your niche. Just remember that you aim is to promote your self storage facility. Therefore, the majority of the information you post should be pertinent to your business.

Our USSelfStorageLocator.com team is always working in informing you of the latest and most effective ways you can market your self storage facility. Feel free to contact us anytime at 888-222-0225 for more self storage online marketing information or to sign up to our online self storage directory.

LinkedIn for Self Storage

LinkedIn, which surfaced nearly a decade ago, distinguishes itself in the social media arena by mainly targeting businesses and professional associations. Your self storage business will benefit from properly utilizing LinkedIn’s networking features which can help you get more business as well as connect with industry professionals. Our social media experts here at USSelfStorageLocator.com have prepared a short LinkedIn guide to help you get started on broadening your self storage facility’s online network and presence.

Basics of LinkedIn

To get started with LinkedIn you must first create a personal account. A Basic personal account is free and will let you create a personal profile for you, as well as a business profile for your self storage facility. However, LinkedIn offers various levels of paid memberships that give you access to extra features.

Once you create a personal account, fill it out with as much relevant information as possible. Your main focus should be informing potential self storage customers about your business. You can adjust your account settings by using the option in the upper right hand corner. For example, an important setting you can set up is whether or not you want others to see that you have viewed their profile. Enabling this setting will allow you to see who has visited your profile as well. This is very useful, as you could contact and research your profile viewers, and potentially generate leads. You can also use the account settings section to edit your profile details and manage your email notification preferences.

After completing your personal profile you will have to create a company page. Create it by visiting the Companies section and selecting ‘add a company’. You will need to fill in your company name and email address. You must prove that you are a current employee of the company by using your company email. Once you have done this, you will receive an email when your page is ready for editing. You can set up your company page so that other employees with a LinkedIn account can edit it.

Once you have set up both your personal profile and your company page, you can then start connecting with people. Remember that LinkedIn is used mostly by professionals so it is not encouraged that you add random people, which is a common practice on other social media networks. Before you can send an invitation to connect, you must first explain how you know the person. You will be presented with options such as colleague, classmate, friend, other etc. If you chose ‘other’, you will have to enter the person’s email address to send an invitation. A good way to get started is to search for people in the self storage industry such as vendors and self storage association officials. By doing so, you are aligning yourself and your business to those who could provide you with important industry information.

Business-to-business Interaction

In LinkedIn you can follow companies that have established a profile page. With this feature, you can follow local businesses and companies in your community and stay informed every time they update information on the site. Connecting with them may bring you more business leads, as many businesses need self storage services as well. You can also follow self storage companies similar to your own to get an idea of what they may be doing. Keeping up with your competition is an important part of potentially exceeding them.

Business-to-customer Interaction

The creation of a business page allows you to target potential self storage customers. This is a good way to increase the visibility of your self storage company. In your company page, you can list an overview of your facility details, current special offers, as well as any employment opportunities you might have. Ensure that you include as much quality information as you can – address, telephone, person of contact. You can include a picture of your facility or logo under the products and services section.

There is an Analytics feature that shows you how many people have viewed your page and the section with the most frequent visits. If you decide to execute a marketing/advertising promotion, this page is helpful for the evaluation of its success. For example, if four weeks into your promotion the number of visits to the promotional section has not increased at a satisfactory rate, then you can choose to improve upon what you are doing.

Lead Generation

As a self storage business owner, the primary purpose behind your use of LinkedIn will be to generate leads and create as much new business as possible. LinkedIn offers many features, but here’s a list of the features which could benefit your self storage business the most:

• LinkedIn Answers – In this section, people ask questions about various topics to get advice. A quick search will show you the questions that people are asking concerning self storage. By providing helpful responses on a regular basis, you are likely to find potential customers.

• LinkedIn Applications – You can add a link to your self storage blog, your Twitter account, Facebook account etc. This gives customers more access to your business by enabling them to connect with you on a variety of platforms. In order to connect your LinkedIn account to Facebook, you will have to allow access and permission from your Facebook account. You can visit the ‘My LinkedIn Profile’ page on Facebook and add the application to your Facebook profile.

• LinkedIn Groups – You can join industry-related groups to connect with people in your field. However, you should join groups outside of your industry to connect with an even wider range of people. Try finding groups of businesses in your city or state.

• LinkedIn People – Search for personal profiles using the box located in the upper right hand corner. When you find people you wish to connect with, you can ask your friends (if possible) for an introduction via LinkedIn. You can also search for people in specific companies to tailor your marketing efforts more precisely.

• LinkedIn Direct Ads – This works in a similar way to the paid search results on Google. You create your advertisement and then bid on how much you will pay every time someone clicks on your ad. For example, if you pay $1 per click and it takes 25 clicks to convert a potential self storage customer, you would have spent $25 for one customer. If that customer rents a unit for 6 months at $60 per month, then a $25 investment which yields $360 would have been a smart choice.

• LinkedIn Mobile – This is best utilized at trade shows or other industry events for making one-to-one contact. If you meet someone you want to connect with, you can transfer contact information via Bluetooth easily. This is a great way to follow up on a lead – no typing, no misspelled contact information.

Connecting Other Social Media Accounts

As mentioned earlier, you can choose to connect your Facebook account to LinkedIn. You can do the same for Twitter by using the “add application” feature. Your tweets will display in real-time on your LinkedIn account. This serves to add further visibility for your self storage business. You can also add polls, WordPress, Google Presentation, Huddle Workspaces, to name a few.

Marketing via LinkedIn

By now, you will have understood the basics of creating and maintaining your personal profile and company page on LinkedIn. By keeping this page constantly updated with useful and accurate information about your business, and connecting with people, businesses and organizations, you are potentially driving new business to your self storage facility.

You should also encourage your employees (managers at least) to create a LinkedIn profile and make sure they appear as employees of your company in LinkedIn. While you may only have one business page, every employee is free to create his or her own personal profile. This increases the number of mentions of your self storage business on the site. You can have your employees include the details of the business and location in their profiles. You may also designate people to search for self storage related questions on LinkedIn, answer them, and reach out to the person who is asking.

LinkedIn continues to expand its features and add useful new tools on a regular basis. These new tools enhance the site’s capabilities and adds to your ability to market your self-storage facility effectively. By using LinkedIn, you will be able to create engaging promotional campaigns and capitalize on the leads you generate.

Our USSelfStorageLocator.com team is always working in informing you of the latest and most effective ways you can market your self storage facility. Feel free to contact us anytime at 888-222-0225 for more self storage online marketing information or to sign up to our online self storage directory.