In another example of how social networking sites can be used to benefit the self-storage industry, PhoneSmart Director Tron Jordheim decided to use LinkedIn, an online professional social network, to find out why professional people choose a particular self-storage company over another. He generated a poll asking, "If you are using or have used self-storage, why did you choose one facility over another?" More than 500 LinkedIn members (out of LinkedIn's network of more than 13 million) responded. Here are their responses:
- Fifty percent chose based on the convenience of the location.
- Thirteen percent looked for the lowest price.
- Twelve percent chose based on special features and amenities.
- Another twelve percent chose the facility that looked the cleanest.
- Eleven percent simply chose a facility that was recommended to them by someone else.
Jordheim's reason for conducting the poll was to find out how much price matters to self-storage customers -- or, rather, to self-storage customers who match LinkedIn's demographic: educated professionals.
"This poll should help calm some fears that price is the only consideration when people are looking for storage units," Jordheim said. "Our sales reps at PhoneSmart talk to a lot of people who seem concerned about price. But after talking to them you find that what they really want is a convenient location or a great value. A great value is not the same as a low price."
Jordheim's poll is another symptom of increasing interest in social networking by the self-storage industry. The self-storage industry has its own online social networks, such as
Self-Storage Talk, an online bulletin board forum hosted by
Inside Self Storage. In the last year, though, many self-storage professionals have started to use LinkedIn as well. Today, LinkedIn has 18,626 members who mentioned self-storage in their profiles. LinkedIn also has 41 groups related to self-storage, including the national Self Storage Association, Mini Storage Messenger, Self Storage Network, Self Storage Professionals, Self Storage Vendors, Self Storage Investors, and state and regional self-storage groups. The groups vary in size. The Washington State Self Storage group on LinkedIn has existed for less than a year and currently has four members. By contrast, Self Storage Network (which was created March 4, 2009), has 303 members.
LinkedIn is a different kind of social network than Self Storage Talk -- it is similar in some ways to Facebook. Self-Storage Talk is a forum organized by topics and posts on matters of interest. LinkedIn is organized by profiles of professionals, who can connect their profiles to people they know, creating an online network of work-related colleagues, acquaintances, and friends. LinkedIn allows members to search by company, to find people they once worked with, or by university, to find people they once attended school with. It also generates lists of people who a member seems likely to know or have met, based on the member's profile, work experience, university education, and LinkedIn network. Similar to Facebook, LinkedIn members can post a status message, but instead of posting a random reflection (as on Facebook), they post what they are working on or what they are reading. They can join industry-related groups. They can also post questions and answers, job openings, industry events, or polls.