TrustRadius Insights for Cision Communications Cloud are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.
Pros
Easy-to-use and Intuitive User Interface: Users have found the user interface of Cision PR Software to be easy-to-use, intuitive, and not overwhelming. They appreciate the well-designed and user-friendly interface of Cision Communications Cloud.
Exceptional Reporting Capabilities: Users highly praise the exceptional reporting capabilities of Cision Communications Cloud. They find the platform's reporting features to be interactive, detailed, and customizable. Many users value how these reports help them quantify the impact of media on their business and gain insights into trends. Additionally, users appreciate the media tracking capability of Cision as it aids in measuring PR results.
Effective Search Functionality: Users find the search function in Cision to be helpful and excellent for quickly obtaining high-level information or metrics about a publication. The detailed database of contacts in Cision is also highly valued by users who find it useful for identifying reporters and influencers. Moreover, they highlight that the new edition of the media building interface is easy to use.
We use it to identify and group media contacts, monitor news and industry trends, and disseminate press updates and releases. Their database is crucial to how we work on PR.
Pros
Excellent database.
Integration with press release dissemination and distribution tools.
Monitor our competitors in the news.
Cons
The interface could be upgraded and made more modern.
It can run slowly sometimes.
Upgraded analytics.
Likelihood to Recommend
It has been instrumental in helping us identify media contacts and targets by coverage area. It has also allowed us to build niche media lists by topic and vertical.
We use Cision for daily media coverage along with news release distribution on a situational basis. The platform allows us to skim through several articles from various news outlets on topics of interest. It also allows us to distribute news releases in an efficient way that will reach our members.
Pros
Collects media coverage
Support service
Check ins
Cons
N/A
Likelihood to Recommend
Cision is a great platform that allows you to execute many things. The team is always available for us when we need them and are great at checking in with their clients.
We use it for a number of functions: 1) Media monitoring -- provide us with sample stories for our daily media package 2) Social media monitoring -- review the sentiment of stories on social media 3) News release distribution and media list creation
Pros
Media list sourcing
Strong database of stories
Strong monitoring abilities
Cons
I would like to see more potential "media" contacts for weeklies and rural community papers
It would be great to have a non-media list of business and community contacts who could potentially receive news releases of interest
Likelihood to Recommend
Cision is very user friendly, particularly when preparing media lists and reviewing media contacts. There is good information in the media outlet description to help determine whether the contact is a good fit for the issue (i.e. they have a news segment in their broadcast or whether it is purely music, in the case of radio).
There are good tutorials if you get stuck. Also the format of the News and Media Monitoring page is quite easy to figure out and to find what you need, compared with other media monitoring companies (ie. Meltwater) which are not as user friendly.
Cision helped with media monitoring, press releases, and media database for pitching. It helps streamline pitching knowing their database is up to date and accurate which saves time researching reporters' contact information. It also provided timely media monitoring to make sure we were on top of the news that interested us most.
Pros
Media monitoring
Press releases
Media contact database
Cons
The sorting features are clunky and hard to use
Media monitoring doesn't seem to catch all
Likelihood to Recommend
Cision is well suited for PR professionals. I really like the way the database keeps the contacts updated even when you have sorted them into your own categories. If you are just looking for a media monitoring service, I think you can find comparable if not better services out there.
We use Cision Communications Cloud for our company's press releases to reach a broad audience. We are a quickly growing small business and awareness is our biggest challenge. Cision Communications Cloud is a great resource to get our name out there! The [ease] of use in selecting targeted press releases was the main reason we chose Cision Communications Cloud.
Pros
Reach - A large list of mediums and new organizations that pick up our press releases.
Simplicity - Step by step approach to releasing news items with guidance along the way. Things like support with titles to get the best response [is] very helpful.
Cons
Expanded reach in technical niches - We are [an] electrical manufacturing company and our audience [is] quite difficult to [reach]. Cision Communications Cloud does a great job of helping us target.
Likelihood to Recommend
Our press releases issued through Cision Communications Cloud are easy to formulate and have an expanded reach for our electrical manufacturing company. We look to put out [a] new product or IP news frequently, Cision Communications Cloud makes it easy to create and share these releases across multiple platforms and to a long list of targeted media sites that our customers read [every day].
We primarily use Cision Communications Cloud to look up media contacts, build media lists, and send out email announcements.
Pros
Media contacts
Email distribution
Tracking campaigns
Cons
For new users, the learning curve is a bit daunting.
It's not the most user-friendly platform.
[The] price [could use some improvement]!
Likelihood to Recommend
I've used Cision since they first came online (and before that Bacon's)!! I love the platform and I'm very familiar with it, but [I feel] it is hard to teach new team members how to best use it. [In my experience], it is also a very expensive platform to use.
As a PR firm, we use Cision Communications Cloud largely as a contact database and to send mass email distributions and press releases. We maintain dozens of curated lists of press contacts and use them to send pitches and press releases on a day-to-day basis.
Pros
Helps us build curated lists of press contacts
Builds and stores email distribution templates
Cons
We would love if Cision Communications Cloud provided more robust contact information related to non-traditional media outlets, such as podcasts.
Likelihood to Recommend
I think Cision Communications Cloud is perfect for those in the PR business. Though, I have been disappointed by Cision's lack of contact information for podcast hosts, producers, and bookers. I love the email distribution performance metric tracker and often use it to inform my pitching follow-up tasks.
We use [Cision Communications Cloud] to search and contact selected journalists to add visibility to our start-up and the problems we solve. As a start-up, it is used by our whole organization (very hands-on), and we have experienced success in gaining additional earned media on selected press announcements.
Pros
[We can] use keywords, topics, and "talked about" words to successfully target appropriate journalists.
[It makes it] easy to compose personalized outreach to targeted journalists.
Reporting and evaluation [are] top-notch for our follow-ups.
Cons
Word processing software could be a bit easier to use, other than that, the whole platform is top-notch.
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
[Cision Communications Cloud is] used via Public Relations for the purposes of distributing news releases, tracking media placements, [and] analytics. It's also convenient for looking up journalists by location, coverage area, and outlet. It's the primary way [that] my department uses to distribute news releases locally, by region, and nationally. Without it, [the] wide distribution of a news release would be all-consuming and virtually impossible. It's also critical for broad tracking of media placements and its integration with TVEyes has only increased its relevancy in that area.
Pros
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.
Cons
It would be nice if the option existed to add more than one image as an attachment to a release distribution, particularly when you have multiple headshots of people being referenced.
Integrating TVEyes was a wonderful touch, but they are missing some of the search flexibilities TVEyes offers on its own.
Font changes and spacing have some minor issues in the body of press release templates.
Likelihood to Recommend
If you are looking for a way to distribute press releases and then track the effectiveness of those releases by media placements, [Cision Communications Cloud is the] program to use. It does all of that and more. Combined with the ability to target specific journalists and regions, it makes sending targeted releases so much easier. If your distributions typically do not involve media, then Cision [Communications Cloud] isn't for you.
Our whole Media Relations Department resorts to Cision [Communications Cloud] to distribute our global press releases.
Pros
Provides follow up to the press release distribution
Provides guidance and close monitoring prior, during, and after distribution
Broad reach and effective targeting of press releases
Cons
A more friendly interface so the company could see past press releases and metrics related to them
A local, bilingual support staff
Likelihood to Recommend
It looks more appropriate when the company is about to distribute a global press release with [a] wide range in countries where Cision [Communications Cloud] is more present. We tend to do it less for local releases when we want to target [fewer] reporters - in this case, we resort to our local outsourced PR company that has its own mailing list.
