Social media earns big for young firm

He may be only 23 years old, but that has not stopped him from doing what most of his age mates think is nearly impossible; he owns and runs his own company.

Mr Muthuri Kinyamu, a marketing graduate of the University of Nairobi, is the director of Social Egde, a firm that handles social networks.

He says his company offers social media services to individuals, groups, and corporates by managing their accounts on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google.

They offer personal branding, brand strategy, and digital marketing through social media, which has continued to gain popularity across the globe.

Mr Kinyamu targets big companies, small and medium entrepreneurs, individuals, and groups. He says that the business, although challenging, is interesting and rewarding.

Mr Kinyamu registered the company in January this year and started with a capital of Sh180,000 which he had earned from the social media management jobs as a freelancer while still at the university.

“I had a lot of interest in the social media and decided to make a good business out of it. Being a marketer, I started Social Edge, which I can proudly say is doing well,” said Mr Kinyamu.

He has six employees and hires eight others when there is a lot of work.

The company offers two categories of service; gold and silver packages.

The former, which entails planning, management, strategising costs a company Sh75,000 and above, depending on the workload, and Sh60,000 and above for an individual a month.

The second package, involving breakdowns, goes for Sh40,000 a month for an individual.

The tasks entail uploading photos and videos in activities favoured by clients, posting comments, as well as monitoring comments by followers.

For example, a company or an individual may post a comment on Twitter or Facebook that may generate debate that may lead to negative comments.

Mr Kinyamu’s job is to be on the look-out for such reactions.

He makes a daily or weekly report to the client about what has been happening on the social media scene.

All round media package

“We do an all round social media package. We create the account, run it by doing the posting and uploads of videos on YouTube anytime the client has an activity, and also control negative postings,” he adds.

Marketing has not been a challenge for him, although he admits that it is sometimes difficult to convince a client to pay because many feel that the services should be free since they can run their Facebook and Twitter accounts on their own.