CIsion Communications Cloud is used for identifying key media and influencers, connecting with audiences, monitoring traditional and social media, and analyzing outcomes.
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Emplifi Social Marketing Cloud
Score 8.9 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Brands can use Emplifi Social Marketing Cloud to elevate their social media presence, engage with customers, and gather insights for real-time business decisions. With solutions covering content creation, scheduling and publishing, analytics, UGC, social listening, influencer marketing, community management, and social care, Emplifi provides a suite of tools to meet social media needs. Data and Automated workflows: Emplifi unifies teams across social media marketing,…
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Pricing
Cision Communications Cloud
Emplifi Social Marketing Cloud
Editions & Modules
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Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cision Communications Cloud
Emplifi Social Marketing Cloud
Free Trial
No
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
Yes
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
—
A monthly billing contract is also available.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cision Communications Cloud
Emplifi Social Marketing Cloud
Considered Both Products
Cision Communications Cloud
Verified User
Project Manager
Chose Cision Communications Cloud
We thought it would be the best platform out there, reaching the most media outlets. It was a no brainer to go with PR Web and the program associated with it for our public relations. Easy to use, helpful associates makes all the difference when choosing a platform like Cision.
For a small start-up, the cost-benefit to add lift to press releases [and] particular milestone accomplishments is definitely there with the Cision [Communications] Cloud. Much of what we do, by necessity, is done internally without the benefit of outsourced press folks, so the Cision [Communications] Cloud ease of use and reporting is very important.
For all general Direct Message management, Emplifi Social Marketing Cloud is great. It keeps conversations organized and allows team members to do all their work in one platform. For public facing social management, there may be some gaps when you are not the top level poster of content, and sometimes gaining context in lengthy exchanges can be easier read on native platforms.
Their upgraded press release templates and ability [to] pull in an entire, completed release makes the [process] faster and easier, and allows for more graphics, such as company mastheads, [are done well].
The media tracking offers the ability to find relevant placements across the entire country.
The journalist database streamlines the process of finding relevant reporters to directly connect [to] on news releases that are relevant to their beats.
The process of setting up, creating, and distributing a release is seamless, easy to use, and not labor-intensive.
In the media influencer database, the classic Cision allowed us to do a zip code radius search to really drill down to the neighborhood level. That's because we do localized media advisories and press releases for events at neighborhood schools. One part of a big city like Chicago really doesn't care what's happening in another part of Chicago that's too far away. The zip code radius search was a feature in the classic Cision but not with the current Cision Communications Cloud. We've asked for this to be restored several times, but nothing's happened. In fact, we were told to use DMA — which actually goes wider in a search (bigger than a city), not more narrow as needed. This reflects a basic misunderstanding of what we need.
Another missing feature involves a merge field when sending out an email press release through Cision. This is the "select insert field" button in the upper right that's used to personalize a release with the media contact's name and other information. This is key for localization of the release. Many media outlets won't run a release unless it's local. While "county" is a feature in the influencer database when putting together a media list in Cision, "county" is not available to insert into a press release as a merge field. Counties are important because this is how many newspapers and health departments are organized and identify themselves. I've asked for this to be implemented, to no avail. As a workaround, we've had to use "contact city" or "outlet city."
After refining a media list in Cision using filters, I've had to download the list and take it offline to see the big picture, screen for duplicates, etc. While there is a button on the bottom left intended to help with this, it doesn't do the trick. That's because there may be multiple contacts with the same email address. In addition, one media contact may represent numerous media outlets, so this same contact could show up several times. It would be nice to have a better way to see the whole list online and eliminate both duplicates as well as those who previously opted out.
We would like to add more public profiles at no cost
In the approval workflow, it would be great if one person could serve 2 roles such as both Content Creator and Publisher.
When our Publisher changes the posting date, it has to run through the approval workflow all over again. This is unnecessary as she is merely changing the date.
While I am happy with the product performance overall, TrendKite's recent merger with Cision is cause for concern. When we first signed on with TrendKite, I spoke with several users and the best response I received was that the company was a startup and we could expect there to be hiccups along the way as the company grew and the platform got more robust. That has certainly been the case. However, now that they have merged with Cision — a company that has grown too fast, has not focused on improving its product and has poor customer service — I have concerns that TrendKite will lose some of the qualities that have made it a great company and great product to work with.
the balance between quality and price si perfectperfect for agency that have many client to manage, because it helps us to save time (we don't have to plan content from every single account, only one click to look at different community and moderate...)it also help the team works: senior can review content direcly from emplifi; labeling DM/comments as done help us to track where a collegue stop and we have to startIt makes the content approval from clients very easy
The flexibility and customization of Cision Communications Cloud (TrendKite)* is among its most important features. Changing the dashboards, using keywords in the saved searches to pull out the best stories and the integration with marketing automation tools gives me confidence that I will able to continue using this tool well into the future. The future implementation and integration of the media contact database will complete the suite, making list management and email marketing programs much smoother. *This review was written before Cision acquired TrendKite. TrendKite is now part of Cision Communications Cloud.
In common features, using daily, it's pretty easy to understand what to do. But when it's about creating dashboards and analysing metrics, not everything it's easy to understand.
Generally, Cision performs well day to day, but it's got some annoying bugs that slow down usage/require user workarounds which is inefficient. More seriously, a few months ago, as a result of a major system upgrade, certain critical functionality was not working and I was unable to use the service for more than a day when I had time-sensitive work to execute
For Cision TrendKite in particilar, support always responded, but it was sometimes slow. For some of our booleans and search queries, we would need help refining and excluding terms/phrases that weren't relevant to our client or campaign. This sometimes took 1-2 days just to get a response back, which sometimes was too late when a last-minute report was due. This was only with the support staff, not necessarily our customer success manager or sales rep.
We have a dedicated Customer Success manager, and that is very helpful. Anytime we have questions or need support, they are always there to answer. If thety do not know the solution, they always go around the bend to find one and provide it to us. They are always very kind.
The online training sessions available for the Cision Communications Cloud are helpful and informative. There's more than one option - initially, I signed up for the live webinar classes on basic functions and that is what I recommend other new users do as well. If I have specific questions or something I want to learn more about, I can search the online database and find article or online training videos to get the information I need.
It's a similar product. I think Meltwater sells itself as being a bit more niche, but I have not found many significant differences between Meltwater and Cision. Meltwater's sales process is a very high pressure and their prices are inflated.
Not only have we used other tools, we reviewed a few tools before deciding to move forward with Emplifi Social Marketing Cloud. Cost was definitely a factor, but also account management and responsiveness. The fact TikTok was available for community management was a key consideration at the time we decided to go with Emplifi Social Marketing Cloud as well. Overall, it was the comprehensiveness of the tool vs. competitors that led us to choose Emplifi Social Marketing Cloud. Its AI and unified management capabilities have been great for our needs.
We are still new to the product, but we anticipate a very positive ROI in regard to our sponsored content and being able to accurately report to clients.
We also anticipate a very positive ROI internally as we will be much more equipped with data, allowing us to focus resources on content that is performing well.
