By Jean Kelley

Mention the phrase social media and most people automatically think of Facebook and Twitter. But if you have any dealings in the corporate world, you'll want to take a closer look at LinkedIn. You just may find it a useful tool to make your business relationships more meaningfuland more profitable.

Before you dismiss the idea of using LinkedIn because you only know it as that bland social-media site where people go when they're looking for a job, realize there are currently 90 million LinkedIn users worldwide. One new user joins every second of every day.

Unlike social-media sites like Facebook where many people use the site for entertainment, all LinkedIn users are business-minded. That means the connections you develop on LinkedIn are more likely to positively impact you or your company in some way. If you want better or more professional business relationships, LinkedIn is the place to be. Even if you have a business profile on Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn makes a perfect addition to your personal or business branding efforts.

An Essential Business Resource

The key to making LinkedIn work for you and your company is to use the site regularly. That means posting something, either an update or a question/answer, every seven days at a minimum. Why? Because the more you use any social-media site, the higher your Google placement will be. In other words, Google's algorithm will notice your regularity and you'll get a higher ranking than you would otherwise. Additionally, the more you interact and post on LinkedIn, the more prominent you'll become within your network and your name recognition will grow.

Fortunately, staying active in LinkedIn and a regular user is simple when you understand how it can benefit you professionally. Use the following ideas and suggestions to make the most of your LinkedIn account.

Show off your skills. It's as easy to set up your profile in LinkedIn as it is in Facebook. Make sure your profile is well-written and it highlights what you currently do, what youve done, your strengths, talents, key attributes and education. Remember that people will access your profile for many different reasons, including recruitment, background information, professional contacts, etc., so be thorough and always make your profile public.

Since your LinkedIn profile is essentially a dynamic mini-resume, keep it updated, tasteful and accurate at all times. Additionally, you have an opportunity to display recommendations for you. As a point of etiquette, when you ask someone to write a recommendation, you must reciprocate.

Say something meaningful. By posting status updates that contain valuable content, you show your network that youre a team player and you care about other people's success. Remember, status updates are not the place to advertise your company's products or services, nor is it a conversation group. A better idea is to share a best practice, announce a seminar/event you've been to or are going to, or give a quick tip.

If you can't think of anything to post, it's perfectly acceptable to post a meaningful or motivational quote. The key is to post something interesting and relevant to your network. Always remember that what you post stays on the Internet forever. So if you wouldn't want your comment on the front page of your local newspaper, don't post it on LinkedIn.

Uncover conversation starters. LinkedIn is a great place to get an inside glimpse of people. For example, you can look up potential clients or vendors on LinkedIn and see what kind of books they read, where they went to school, what their main interests are (based on the groups they belong to), and so much more. Now you'll have more to talk about when you meet the potential client, vendor or networking friend. Think of LinkedIn as a gateway to have a professional relationship with someone much quicker.

In fact, some estimates show that by using LinkedIn to research the people you plan to interact with, you can have a six-month head start on the relationship.

Spot trends and hot topics. There's an amazing amount of real-time information available on LinkedIn. By being a member of various groups that interest you, you can see what people are thinking on a certain topic by the questions they're posting and the responses they're getting. So if you want to know what the current trends or best practices are in green products and applications, for example, you could join several green groups on LinkedIn and track each group's activity. You can then use the information you discover in your own company.

Get an "in" with top companies. Whether you're looking for new clients, vendors or even a job, with LinkedIn you can search the companies you want to work with and see who in your network has connections there. You can then ask that person for an introduction to a decision-maker who can help you.

Even if you find that no one in your network has connections with a particular company, perhaps someone in one of your groups works there. That's why it's important to belong to every group that interests you. Continually build your LinkedIn relationships and make those key connections before you actually need them.

The Missing Link to Your Success

Even though 82 percent of people use some kind of social media regularly, social media itself is much like the Wild West. It's not tame yet, and best practices are still being formed. With that said, if you've spent much of your time on other social-media sites and feel they aren't working for building professional relationships, then it's time to give LinkedIn a try.

The key to making it work is to work it regularly. Commit to spending at least 30 minutes per day on it, posting your ideas in updates, asking and answering questions, participating in groups, and reaching out to potential connections. Yes, it's one more thing to schedule in your calendar, but by building relationships and gaining new information on people and topics, it's also something that can make your job easier and better position your company.

Jean Kelley, president and founder of Jean Kelley Leadership Consulting, is the author of Get a Job; Keep a Job. She works with corporate leaders all over the world to achieve their highest potential. For more information, visit www.jeankelley.com.

The Florida Self Storage Association (FSSA) will host a casino night legislative fundraiser as part of its upcoming Conference & Expo, May 11-13, at Disneys Contemporary Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The goal of the event, scheduled for May 11, 7-10 p.m., is to financially bolster FSSAs effort to modernize the states self-storage lien law. Games will include poker, Black Jack, roulette and craps.

The casino night is sponsored by USSelfStorageLocator.com, an online self-storage search engine that was launched in January. Based in North Miami Beach, Fla., USSelfStorageLocator lists self-storage facilities in its directory and allows consumers to rent units through its online interface. In addition to sponsoring the event, the company has donated an iPad 2 to be given as a grand prize to the biggest casino winner.

The FSSA annual conference and expo is a gathering of self-storage facility owners and vendors. Other activities at this years event include a Developers Seminar, a Legal Seminar, The Ultimate Marketing Boot Camp, a keynote presentation by former Major League Baseball player Bucky Dent, multiple education sessions and a tradeshow of industry suppliers.

The U-Haul Co. of Illinois is offering 30 days of free self-storage to all residents who have been affected by the April 19 tornadoes, which were concentrated in small towns in the south central part of the state.

In addition to offering 30 days of free self-storage, U-Haul encourages people who need boxes to take advantage of U-Haul's Take a Box, Leave a Box program. The program allows customers to return their reusable boxes or take them for free as needed.

"These tornadoes have caused a tremendous amount of damage to the many communities we serve," stated Jay Bjork, president of U-Haul Co. of Illinois. "I hope this effort will help provide assistance to families that need support. We will continue to help our friends and neighbors in this time of need."

Established in 1945, U-Haul has a network of more than 16,300 locations throughout the United States and Canada. The company offers more than 36 million square feet of self-storage space at nearly 1,100 facilities throughout North America.

Access Self Storage in Portsmouth, United Kingdom, collected gently used and new games and toys to donate to the children at Queen Alexandra Hospital.

The facility collected more than 100 gifts for the Easter Toy Appeal. A representative from Access Self Storage delivered the presents to the hospital this week.  The Easter bunny delivered presents and Easter candy to the children Friday.

We were delighted to support this years Easter Toy Appeal, said Kevin Pratt, marketing manager of Access Storage. Easter is a time to enjoy family and a lot of these children will not be able to spend it at home. With this toy appeal we hoped we could bring the Easter cheer to them in the hospital.

Damaging winds and a possible tornado significantly damaged a Jonesboro, Ark., self-storage facility after storms rolled through the area April 19.

R&R Mini Storage on the south side of Jonesboro began notifying tenants the next morning of roof damage to units. Upon opening units, tenants discovered water and other damage to stored items such as videotapes and photographs.

Co-owner Travis Grissom told the source the wind affected 48 units, a complete structure. The facility's other three structures of units went unscathed. The owner said the cleanup effort was underway and implied he would rebuild structures.

The storms turned north and ripped siding and roofing off buildings at a local fairgrounds. Though people reported seeing a tornado, it was not officially recorded.

By Rob Thompkins

Whats dat fing? my five-year-old daughter recently asked me while we dined at her favorite restaurant. My obvious response was, What fing? She then pointed under the recently vacated table next to ours. There, on the floor in a crumpled mass, lay a childs doll. To be more specific, it was none other than Woody, the cowboy from the childrens movie Toy Story. I sat for a moment awaiting a heroic rescue by Buzz Lightyear, but when it became obvious Buzz was to be a no-show, I walked over and scooped up the doll.

I sat back down and immediately pulled the string on his back (you would too), at which point Woody exclaimed, Youre my favorite deputy! I guess I am, Woody, I just saved your butt!

When the restaurant manager walked by a few minutes later, I explained what had occurred. The manager couldve responded in a variety of ways including a simple thank you, but his response was perfect. He said, Im sure someone is going to be pretty upset when he realizes hes missing. Im going to try and track down the owner. Thank you for finding him. That was the end of my journey with Woody, and the beginning of this article.

Great Service Is a Choice

In the self-storage industry, were faced with the challenge of renting three metal walls, a concrete floor and a roll-up door to customers, and our competitors are renting a wall/floor/door combo that looks remarkably like ours. While we continue to find new and creative ways to differentiate our product, one tried and true method will always remainproviding great customer service.

Great service is a choice that combines a desire to do the right thing, some creativity, and good business practice. The manager I mentioned above was faced with a choice. The easier path would have been to say thank you and disappear to the back of the restaurant to toss the doll into the lost and found bin. Instead, he chose to seek the dolls owner.

Lets assume he was able to research the credit card activity for that day, find the family who was sitting at the table, and contact them. Certainly, they would be thrilled. What if he then decided to drop off the doll off at the familys house, with permission of course, on his way home? What if he attached a balloon for the child?

Choices like these are made every day by individuals who truly desire to make people happy, yet understand the positive implications for the business they represent.

Great Service Is Focused and Personal

Recently, I was shopping at one of the large retail stores whose name ends in mart. As I was preparing to check out, I noticed the cashier, or rather service associate, having a conversation with the coworker bagging items. As the last of my goods made their way into a bag, the associate turned to me and said which one of these common phrases?

• How are you today, sir?
• Have you enjoyed your shopping experience?
• Sir, did you find everything you needed today? We want to help you however we can.
• Cash or credit?

If you chose the last option, youre correct. I said, credit, at which point she returned to her conversation. She returned my card without looking at me, and said something to the effect of Thngufirshoppn__mrt. Hvanicdy, which I would loosely translate as Thank you for shopping at ___mart. Have a nice day.

I was in a playful mood, so I decided to say, Im sorry? At which point, she turned to me and said, What? Whereupon I said, I didnt hear what you said. Then, she said, I didnt say anything. Then I said, You said something. We were well on our way to creating a retail version of Abbot and Costellos Whos on First bit when her coworker cut in and explained, She said, have a nice day. I then responded with a smile, Oh, thank you. You, too.

One could write a doctoral thesis on this poor service experience, but Ill focus on what happened at the end. This particular chain stores intention was to thank customers for their business, which is great. However, over time and as a result of poor leadership, that thank you has become an unintelligible garbled mass of words that no longer carry any meaning. This exercise has become so routine that employees dont even remember what theyre saying.

Great service is focused and personal. Its about the intention behind the words, not simply saying the words. It involves one-on-one contact with individualized attention. Great service isnt going through the motions; its friendly and helpful with the end goal of creating a life-long customer.

Great Service Is a Clear Expectation

Weve all witnessed and been impressed by those who provide outstanding service, those whove made service an art form. Were also too familiar with marginal or poor service. In our own organizations, we need to create a clear expectation and definition of great service by simply showing what we think it looks like.

In the early part of my career, I worked in the hotel industry. At one point, I became incredibly frustrated with a person who was a part of my front-desk team because he just didnt seem to understand great service. One day, I realized I was actually the problem. During each discussion I had with this employee, I referenced great service without describing what I felt it was. I never explained what great service looked like. I assumed everyone knew, and he was just missing the mark.

In reality, he never understood what I was looking for. As a result, I decided to clearly illustrate to my team what we were trying to achieve by using examples and even role play. We grew to build an award-winning service team with a reputation for providing the best service in our market.

Without clear expectations, quality individuals whove never witnessed great service may not know what it looks like. Its up to our leaders to provide that vision. Great service starts with a clearly communicated company mission and an individualized expectation for those carrying it out. We need to hire and train people who truly understand and value the power of identifying service opportunities. Our teams should embrace those opportunities in an effort to keep our customers happy and provide them with a story to tell to their friends.

In many ways, our business model may look a lot like our competition; but if we can harness the potential great service offers, the possibilities are limitless, maybe even to infinity and beyond. (Sorry, I couldnt resist.)

Rob Thompkins is the director of customer care at Storsmart Insurance, a provider of tenant-insurance products. To reach him, call 888.545.SMART; e-mail [email protected] ; visit www.storsmartinsurance.com .

Nevada Senate Bill 150, which would improve the state's self-storage lien law for facility operators and limit operators' liability regarding protected property, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 15 with amendments and now goes to the Senate floor for a vote. Championed by the Nevada Self Storage Association (NVSSA) with financial support from the national Self Storage Association, the amended bill includes four key changes proposed by Senate Judiciary Chairperson Valerie Wiener:

1. The newspaper-advertisement requirement for publicizing lien sales, present in the existing law, has been re-added to the proposed bill. It requires an operator to publicize the sale once a week for two consecutive weeks in a local newspaper. Advertising on a "publically accessible Internet website" was added to this requirement as well.
2. Licensed tenants such as doctors, lawyers, realtors and stock brokers who store protected propertyfor example, data containing Social Security numbers or banking informationmust send written notice to the appropriate state-licensure board that they're storing sensitive client information.
3. A step-by-step process for operators on how to dispose of protected property was added.
4. Tenants storing protected property must label the exterior of the containers holding the materials.

"The important thing is we're out of committee," said NVSSA President Travis Morrow. He and the association are not pleased with the newspaper requirement being re-added, he said, but the bill can be amended again in the Assembly Judiciary Committee, which is where it will go if it passes the Senate.

After the Assembly Judiciary Committee, the bill goes to the Assembly (House) floor for a vote. Next, Sen. Weiner must approve any changes made in the Assembly. If all of this occurs, the bill can head to Gov. Brian Sandoval for approval.

The amended version of the bill is available at http://www.leg.state.nv.us/Session/76th2011/Bills/Amendments/A_SB150_480.pdf. The bill's progress can be followed at http://www.leg.state.nv.us/Session/76th2011/Reports/history.cfm?ID=363.

The California Self Storage Association (CSSA) has relocated to new offices at 4000 MacArthur Blvd., Suite 900, Newport Beach, CA 92660. For members convenience, the mailbox at the Long Beach office will be retained until May 15. The new phone number is 949.783.4130. The new fax number is 949.861.9425.

CSSA is a non-profit trade association dedicated to supporting the self-storage industry in California. The group provides educational events, networking opportunities, legislative advocacy and more.

The next CSSA event is a local area networking reception that will take place April 27, 5 to 7 p.m., at the Il Fornaio restaurant in Irvine. During the event, Tim Hobin, a partner at StorQuest Self Storage, will discuss current market trends including quarterly results, occupancy and more. The cost to attend is $35, and online registration is available at www.californiaselfstorage.org through April 25.

A bill in Florida that will improve the states self-storage lien law overcame two major hurdles this week.

House Bill 459, which revises the notice requirements relating to lien enforcement and addresses limitations on liability, moved through the Civil Justice Subcommittees in the House and Senate. Pressure from newspaper lobbyists required one component of the bill to be removed. It stalled the bill and threatened its passage, said Robert Bret, executive director of the Florida Self Storage Association (FSSA). As soon as we removed this piece from the legislation, the bill was brought back to life and has enjoyed some great traction.

The Civil Justice Subcommittee considered the bill on April 13, and adopted the amendment. The committee also added provisions relating to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.

Senate Bill SB 1772 revises notice requirements, allowing postal notice by First Class Mail with a certificate of mailing as well as e-mail notification. It also deletes provisions relating to advertisement requirements and clarifies provisions relating to the right to create contractual liens or limitations on liability.

Working in conjunction with the national Self Storage Association, the FSSA hired a lobbyist after association members complained about the states archaic lien laws, which were costing operators an exorbitant amount and created extra steps to their procedures, Bret said. For example, an operator would send out a Certified letter, which often came back unsigned, and then would have to reach the customer in various other ways, such as phone calls, e-mail, regular mail, etc., he said. Also, in many remote areas of Florida, there isnt a significant newspaper publication, and facilities would be required to spend large sums on ads in newspapers that didnt necessarily reach their specific audience.

Florida isnt the only state revisiting self-storage lien laws during this springs legislative session. Other states, including Nevada, Illinois and Tennessee, all have lien-law legislation in progress. Just last week, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed into law Senate Bill 11-039, which includes improvements to the states lien law for self-storage operators.

Bret is confident Floridas governor will also soon be signing a new self-storage lien law. It is an inevitability, he says.

To view the bill and track its progress, visit www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2011/459.