Social Media Marketing...What's that?

Okay so it has been brought to my attention, several times since we began our RelyLocal-Martinsburg business, that a lot of people in our area don't quite understand the internet and it's potential. Why is this? Well, I thought about it and honestly I believe it's due to a number of things. The older you are the less likely you are to use the internet. Many of the local business owners in our area are of an older generation, which is wonderful and I am in no way knocking that but, in todays society and yes even in our little town, the internet is an extremely important tool to have and understand. So how do we get our older generation business owners to acknowledge the need for social media marketing? Well, that is a tough one because there are always going to be those few that say "oh no, we don't need the internet." and that is fine. Without the internet and social media marketing these businesses are essentially invisible to a large part of the population. By taking advantage of the internet RelyLocal, as a whole, has created a way to market these businesses in such a way that they are optimized for the internet and they are "out there" (for lack of better terms) for everyone to see on the popular social networks. I feel the important thing is that these business owners understand the opportunity the internet provides to grow their business. I am not saying that the internet is going to take their little shop and turn it into a giant corporation but, what I am saying is that there is the potential out there for them to gain more business and create a buzz in the community. That is what we strive to accomplish with RelyLocal-Martinsburg, we want to get the word out about these local businesses and keep our local economy thriving.