A guest installment by Cat Lane, operations manager for Lock It Up Self Storage

One of the major questions facing self-storage operators is what to do about social-media marketing. Lets face it, as business owners and managers we need to run our business. Most operators dont have the budget to hire a dedicated social-media marketing expert. However, since so much more business is conducted online every year, it is still paramount to have a robust Web presence to capture the market.

How can one accomplish the task of link-building, content marketing, improved search-engine returns, capturing Web traffic and producing something that can be posted across all social networks? Video.

Here are four important tips on how to use video to accomplish these goals for your self-storage operation:

1. Video Tours of Your Property

This may sound a lot more difficult than it is, but if you have an employee with a smartphone, then you are in business. By simply starting a video with a shot of your sign, panning to your units and walking to an open storage unit, you can narrate a 30-second walking tour of your location. One shot, no editing, nothing complicated. More and more, potential customers like to see what they are getting into before they buy. This simple video strategy can help.

2. Customer Testimonials

These are the easiest to shoot. Ask loyal customers if they wouldnt mind doing a 20-second testimonial answering the question, Why do you like this self-storage location? If done right, these videos dont need to be edited and can be exported from your phone to YouTube and Facebook.

3. Content Across Many Platforms

Social media is a content-hungry beast. Video can be used to populate your Facebook page, Twitter posts, YouTube content, MySpace and more. 

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Appearing on page one of Google should be your goal. To do this you need links. There are many platforms where you can post video and link back to your website. Housing video on your website also helps because Web pages with video are 50 times more likely to rank than those without.

But the real benefit of video is on Google Places. Google owns YouTube and has a massive percentage share of online searches, which are dominated by Google Places listings. A very important step to fully optimizing your Google Places profile is to have five videos on YouTube and then add them to your Google Places account.

Creating videos may seem like its more trouble than its worth, but the results dont lie. Your business will reap the benefits of online video very quickly, and you will put your self-storage operation way ahead of the online-marketing curve.

Cat Lane is operations manager for Lock It Up Self Storage, which specializes in San Jose, Calif., storage units and offers seven Bay Area locations. The company features video tours of all its facilities on its website.