Social Media is growing at an exponential rate. The number of searches in 2009 for the term 'social media' exceeded that for every preceding year. Clearly there is a mass of people online who regard social media as important simply because they are looking for information about it.
Facebook has over 400 million active users who between them have more than 5.3 billion fans; and latest estimates put Twitter's user base at around 12 million people with explosive growth pointing to around 18 million registered users by the end of 2010. In addition, there are the 'new players in the game' that are attracting attention.
Many industry players already understand this change of circumstance, and are pioneering initiatives to engage with customers, promote products, build identity in a more personal way, build immediate loyalty or adherence to their brand, and respond to customers' service issues. They already recognize that they need to be part of the conversations taking place online because people believe those conversations more than they do their own advertising. They realize that they can up-sell and cross sell via social media tools.
Marketing depends on research, and research is monitoring - that is, listening to what people are saying online. Many businesses commonly use rate comparison tools to get valuable information to feed their revenue management systems. However, there is no reason why they cannot be using keyword systems to pick up on broader conversations beyond their own branded and competitor branded terms, right now. Furthermore, they could be using these systems to alert their marketing departments and build on-the-spot promotions in their Central Reservation Systems to be available immediately on their web sites, advertised on Facebook and communicated via Twitter.
For example, the Central Reservation System could be plugged into Facebook, so that confirmation of bookings could be notified on the guest's Facebook inbox, with appropriate up-sell and cross-sell offers as well as concierge services. The booking confirmation could also provide a link to a video of the property or any relevant information the business wants to communicate. And, because sites such as Facebook are designed to allow sharing, these videos could spread in a viral manner. The business would quite simply have to do less work, as their systems and their audiences do their marketing for them.
But none of these should be 'islands of automation'. They should be linked with other business intelligence solutions so that integrated reports show how each program is performing at any technological touch point of the business.
And we've only just begun. While social media overtakes the web in size, mobile is around the corner. Geo-location is a whole new world of opportunity for businesses as people can be influenced simply by driving down the street. Furthermore, to gain real value, a business needs to be much more integrated, without damaging their current performance or their brand perception.
And to the question "Could social media - should it - apply to the self storage industry?" The answer is a resounding "Yes."
There is a vast opportunity for businesses to benefit from social media. It is a new word-of-mouth world, in which marketing and merchandising can be truly creative, but only if they are enabled to do so by technology. For businesses to embrace social media they need to ensure that their entire technology systems infrastructure is not only ready, but that it will place them at the forefront of this new interaction.
