Cision Communications Cloud vs. Emplifi

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.

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- Very well suited to grabbing top-level and more in-depth social performance data, across campaigns and BAU activity. - Not as well suited for moments where you need benchmarking or context of your performance compared with a previous time frame. This can be a bit clunky to go back and forth with as it requires multiple dashboards or consistent manual time-frame changes.

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• 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.

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• Helps us prioritize requests based on urgency and tone
• Helps us divide work between several teams
• Helps us keep an eye on how our posts are being recieved and are performing
• Helps us stay in contact with customers, and helps us understand particular customers needs
• Helps us separate the chaff from the wheat

• 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.

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• Would love more robust search parameters for labels. ex. search for tickets labeled 'Availability' AND 'United States' but excluding any that are only one of those labels
• Ability to break conversations into multiple tickets; so labels can be more accurate if the same person reaches out again after 3 months with a totally different question
• The social account quick view doesn't always load the follower count for people reaching out to us. it makes it slower to manager messages from high level creators

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.

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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

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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.

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Since the main use of the Live Advisor is on the website that doesn't have e-commerce capabilities, it has been challenging to attach an specific metric to Emplifi's solutions and their usability in our websites. The Live Advisor is helping us to deliver our unique sale proposition in digital channels, which is great, but it is difficult to assign a higher mark in usability due to the limitation just explained.

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Easily accessible 24/7.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The online training was fine but, in the end, the best way to learn any product is by actually using it.

There is no implementation at the customer's end so this doesn't really apply to my instance of Cision (possibly to all instances of it).

The platform is so easy to understand that no "expensive consulting firm" is necessary to implement it!

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.

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We have used Sprinklr to source UGC content as well, but found the platform to be much more time intensive when searching for the desired images. Additionally, Emplifi's UGC tool has incremental tools the other platforms do not provide, including the ability to share images on digital screens within the property and put carousels on our websites.

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Easy to use, but still room for improvement.

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• Cision has a net positive impact on time savings for staff so we can be quicker to market
• Cision has a positive impact on internal savings as it is used internally across multiple accounts and with the internal PR team
• Cision is extremely useful when it comes to resourcing and conducting outreach in those DMA's where our agency doesn't have a physical presence

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• reporting - this has massively reduced the time spent on creating reports for social media activities
• paid ads - has provided detailed analysis of how our ads are performing
• community - reduced the time taken to respond to social messages, resulting in more leads

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