Today’s business world relies less on face-to-face interaction and more on “instant” communication. For the storage industry to keep up with this, operators and managers need to get their facilities on social media. But storage operators only need to get on a few social media platforms, especially if they’re just starting out. Our suggestion? Start with Google+, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Here’s why:
One of the most useful platforms available for storage facilities today is Google+. For starters, you’re given direct access to customers and industry partners while also giving Google all of the information they need to list your facility locally and nationally in search engine results. Just by signing up for Google+ (and subsequently Google My Business), you instantly make it easier for your facility to be found online.
Twitter will give you a way to interact with customers quickly. While its 140-character limit may seem tricky, it’s a good way to keep yourself from getting too “wordy” in posts. If you want to share a blog post, tell customers about a new storage deal, or even provide customer service, Twitter can help.
Don’t forget about today’s top platform, Facebook, which gives your website the best chance at being seen. By using the world’s largest social network, you can get your website, blog posts, or individual webpages out to thousands of people in an instant. For best results, however, you may have to spend a little bit of money through Facebook’s advertisers program. This will put your posts in the sidebar, giving more than just those who “like” your facility’s page the chance to see what you’re doing.
The final social media website you should be on is LinkedIn. Primarily a recruiting platform, LinkedIn can help with a handful of things, namely giving you a place to interact with other storage businesses on a professional level. While Twitter, Google+, and Facebook may have, or try to offer, a professional feel, LinkedIn is the only platform dedicated toward encouraging business-to-business (B2B) interaction.
While we at Storage.com believe that it’s best to be on all four of these social platforms, we understand that time and resources aren’t always there to conquer each and every one. If that’s the case and you’re only looking at starting one or two social media accounts, at least get on Facebook and Google+. These will help you get the most social reach and search engine optimization.
