Cision Communications Cloud vs. Quid

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.

Incentivized

In my use of [NetBase] Quid, I found the tool particularly suitable for curating pertinent content. It allowed me to develop more comprehensive analysis at a larger scale, all while substantially reducing the amount of research time needed. It is also a plus that [NetBase] Quid is delivered as a web app. I did some of my [NetBase] Quid work on a low-end Chromebook without issues.

• 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.

Incentivized

• Their NLP is very strong with the ability to distinguish subject in sentences and then apply analysis based on either the subject or sentence. Competitors lack strong NLP and often have lower degrees of accuracy.
• The platform is highly flexible with dozens of ways to filter and cut the data. It is great for an analyst that really wants to deep dive into the data. However, the analysis done automatically by NetBase is also strong enough that less experienced users would still be able to gain insight with ease.
• The customizable dashboards are perfect for client reporting and drastically reduce the amount of time spent preparing recurring reports and decks. These are also very flexible depending on reporting needs.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Dashboards can only currently be exported as PDFs. It would be helpful to have a more read/writable format (eg. PPT) that enables us to combine Netbase's outputs with other sources, or to make them more consistent with our own branding (colours, fonts etc.)
• The business model revolves around a limited number of login seats. I would like to be able to roll out the tool to make it available/accessible to more people in the business, but the pricing model makes this impractical/uneconomical.
• Logging out users after a period of inactivity can be frustrating when multitasking/task switching and unsaved work is lost.
• While Netbase's focus on language processing is its key strength, additional functionality around social analysis (eg. people who follow a brand account, users who talk about X are also likely to talk about Y) is somewhat limited.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

We've had a good experience using the tool and have invested quite a bit of time training the internal team on how to get the most benefit out of it. There would need to be a compelling reason or business case to port over all of our existing topics and tool know-how to another platform.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Very simple to use, quick to pick up on the key principles, and a task-centric design (ie. Topics to set up what you want to analyze, Analysis to do the exploration/analysis, and Dashboards to pull results and findings together to generate reports.) All intuitive, drag & drop etc.

Incentivized

Easily accessible 24/7.

Incentivized

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

NetBase constantly updates the platform with features. The platforms ability to analyze complex social listening topics is exceptional. Its fast and gives you the ability to create standardized reports for a quick topic analysis. Additionally, the standard overview tab provides the topic at a glance and assists in quickly identifying areas to further analyze. Great product with excellent support behind it!

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.

Incentivized

Our support contact is always available and will spend all of the time required to make sure our questions are answered.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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).

We had an internal implementation meeting with the NetBase team as well as a business seat implementation for one of our clients. I would highly recommend having all stakeholders attend an implementation meeting as they can understand the power of this platform.

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.

Incentivized

Meltwater took too long to load whenever you had to change keywords, their customer service was not very responsive, and their interface was not very customizeable. We decided to search for a new software company and we invited many companies to present. We selected Netbase after a free trial for reasons stated earlier.

Incentivized

Easy to use, but still room for improvement.

Incentivized

• 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

Incentivized

• Positive - NetBase allows us to quickly gather a high level over view of a topic, which helps for new business pitch and being able to inform the account teams of basic information.
• Negative - We have to use other tools to gather news, which affects our budget.

Incentivized