If you’ve been in a retail business for a decade or more, you probably remember that finding the right location was critical to your success. It wasn’t easy but you did it! These days, though, you’re beginning to wonder where everybody has gone. Revenues are down and new customers aren’t showing up at the door. If you’re like a lot of small businesses, you have yet to develop an ongoing managed internet marketing with social media campaign.

Advertising has changed forever and the old days aren’t coming back so long as we have electricity to fuel this grand tool known as the internet. As for social media. It’s not a fad and it’s no longer just another trend. We’re entrenched in its grasp. Even if you’re not Twittering and Linking-In online, studies show that your customers and those who should be your customers are actively engaged three, four, five or more days per week.

Aside from the fact that today’s consumer isn’t tuned into print media the way people were in the past, your next new customer is probably just as concerned with quality as they are with price. Simply running an ad that provides a deep discount isn’t going to necessarily move them to visit your place of business. They want referrals. They want to hear from other people who have done business with you.

If you own a small business that relies on getting the attention of a local or regional customer base, you’re probably thinking that spending money online doesn’t make sense. Why would you need to engage local people online when you could certainly reach them through other means? For starters, your customers and prospects aren’t reading the newspaper you used to advertise in and they’re recycling coupon books and anything that looks like junk mail faster than the mailman can deliver it.

Sometimes direct mail shopper campaigns worked for you and sometimes they didn’t. Today’s consumer not only spends more time online, they spend more time engaging in various forms of social media for professional and recreational purposes. Even though the internet is vast and seemingly endless, internet marketing professionals know how to key in on the targets that would best suit your business‘ niche. In fact, by zeroing in on your potential customer, instead of merely dumping mail on an entire zip code, you’ll actually end up with a much better ROI for your advertising dollar.

According to a June 2010 survey by Digital Brand Expressions, 90% of the businesses who responded said that they are allocating resources for ongoing social media activities. Businesses small and large are stepping up to the fact that online socializing isn’t going away anytime soon. That’s why it’s important for every business to understand that advertising in today’s world requires being online and getting social.

But it’s not enough to simply sit down at your computer and attempt to do-it-yourself. An ongoing social media presence is simply one component of a successful managed internet marketing campaign. Your brand and your business have a niche and often the only way to reach your new customers is to meet them where they live online.

Nothing stays the same for very long. Change is a fact of life that stimulates some and scares the ‚you-know-what‘ out of others. This isn’t the time to sit back and think that direct mail or print media is going to make a comeback and work for your business the way it once did. It’s time to move ahead and seize the opportunity in developing a managed internet marketing with social media program that stimulates and engages your existing customers and reaches out to all of those other customers you have yet to meet. Time isn’t standing still and neither should you. Get on it!

Learn those Marketing with Social Media methods by looking online. There you will find many choices for Managed Internet marketing that you may use. Head online now and learn more.