Social media isn’t just a place for interacting with your friends and sharing family photos. It’s also a place where you can easily generate business, says Syed Balkhi, an entrepreneur, growth hacker, and marketer. When it comes to raising brand awareness and commanding customers’ followership and allegiance, social media play a very vital role. 

According to Statistica, the number of worldwide users on social media platforms (like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.) is projected to hit a whopping 3.02 billion active users per month by 2021. With more than 2 billion worldwide users already, social media present a huge opportunity for businesses to showcase their brand to a wider audience, attract new customers while developing customers’ loyalty.

In the 21st century, it is quite important to understand the impact social media has on customer retention and lead generation as a business marketing tool.

Below we'll take a look at 5 ways you can start using social media to expand and grow your business.

1. Maintain a Constant Presence

Maintaining a constant presence on your social media account helps to build a memory of your brand among your audience while keeping them constantly engaged. It takes time and patience to cultivate a reliable presence.

Nothing destabilizes social media branding efforts more than irregular posting. 

While you should tweet more often and frequently upload new Instagram pictures, you should limit your Facebook and Linkedin posts to once or twice a day. 

Posting irregularly will erase your brand quickly from your audience's memory. Shortened attention spans combined with rapidly growing social networks have made constant publishing more important than ever.

Related: 7 Smartest Things To Do as a New Startup Business

2. Use Social media to tell your brand story

Social media provides a great channel to tell your brand story and get connected with your audience. People are connected to good stories and make key decisions based on emotion. The way you tell your stories can get your audience attached to your brand, differentiate you from competitors and increase your sales. 

Brand storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to differentiate yourself, connect with your customers, increase brand loyalty and sell your vision.

Ensure you tell your story in such a way that it can thrive on customers’ emotions and drive sales.

3. Develop Trust with Customers

Social media platforms can help you establish your small business as a topical authority. Meaning, in your niche, your brand becomes a trusted source of information. 

Another unique benefit of social media compared to other marketing channels is that it allows you to talk directly to customers and followers. Hence, you can build relationships over time which will improve the trust level of your customers. It gives you the opportunity to build trust with customers and develop loyal customers. 

People prefer to purchase from brands they recognize. For any small business, raising awareness is a top goal. You can start building awareness for your brand on social media by engaging and interacting with other users by replying to Tweets and comments on Facebook and Instagram posts.

If you’re not exactly sure where to start when it comes to relationship-building, here are some quick ideas:

• Always, @mention people, you reference in your social media posts
• Answer questions people ask
• Reply when people @mention you or share your content
• Don’t just Retweet and Like other people’s content; reply with a comment to start a conversation.

Related: Starting Up a Business in Africa - The DOs

4. Run Promotions

Social media promotions draw in new users and returning customers alike, providing a new outlet for deals, sales, and the like. You can put your business right in front of public eyes with paid social media ads on Facebook and Instagram, which provide the ability to target users based on their demographics and interests, and this guarantees your ads are seen by your ideal customers.

Social media promotion can be a way to build your business and bring it right in front of your targeted audience. It can generate leads while improving the likelihood of increased sales and