Company social technology security and cross-platform messaging strategy

Social Technology and Security

Cincom Systems, a privately-held enterprise software company who is very active on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and has an extensive blog network relies on social media sites to share customer success stories and the latest updates on events the company is participating in. Cincom has six different product divisions, each offering a different type of enterprise software, ranging from Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to advanced product and sales configuration systems as well. The latest information on employee accomplishments and a continual stream of updates on new products dominate the social networking sites, while the website is used for communicating the unique value proposition of the six different divisions.

The website is also used for providing product overviews and presentations given at conference, along with the biographies of the senior executives. Cincom's executives are all over 50 years of age, with several over 60. The website and social media reflects a more business-like focus and also shows executives at times golfing and out at sales ward dinners, all activities older executives like to engage in. Cincom does little to extend their message to other age groups, as the majority of companies who are customers have senior executives at the same age or older of their senior management teams. Their social media strategies tend to be self-congratulatory with plenty of pictures of their events and content that is meant for executives and senior management. Their content management strategy driving the social media sites is oriented more towards manufacturing executives and Chief Information officers (CIOs) that are more concerned about unifying their enterprise software strategies across a wide variety of systems and platforms. Content regarding management and leadership is inspirationally oriented and more attuned to those that manage larger organizations, as are the videos and experts that Cincom offers guest editorials to. Companies often rely on social media to project their image to the outside world, tending to align their content to how they ideally see themselves over what they can do for customers (Diffley, Kearns, Bennett, Kawalek, 2011). Cincom tends to this with their messaging, concentrating on how their solutions solve major problems throughout enterprises. They do this while attempting to connect with senior management at a more personal level through the use of stories of customer results. The overall content strategy reinforces their focus on providing enterprise solutions with a strong orientation on mid-tier and senior executives. The social networking and marketing strategy Cincom is using is successful in sharing customer success stories and creating a connection with older executives, yet it is unclear if these efforts are leading to greater financial performance. The ultimate measure of marketing and social networking strategies is an increase in sales and profit performance for an organization (Heirati, O'Cass, Ngo, 2013).