Skip to main content
TrustRadius
Cision Communications Cloud

Cision Communications Cloud

Overview

What is Cision Communications Cloud?

CIsion Communications Cloud is used for identifying key media and influencers, connecting with audiences, monitoring traditional and social media, and analyzing outcomes.

Read more
Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Users have found this product to be incredibly versatile, with a range of use cases that cater to their specific needs. Customers have …
Continue reading

Couldn't be happier!

10 out of 10
June 15, 2023
We use Cision for daily media coverage along with news release distribution on a situational basis. The platform allows us to skim through …
Continue reading
Read all reviews

Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Reviewer Pros & Cons

View all pros & cons
Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing
N/A
Unavailable

What is Cision Communications Cloud?

CIsion Communications Cloud is used for identifying key media and influencers, connecting with audiences, monitoring traditional and social media, and analyzing outcomes.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Would you like us to let the vendor know that you want pricing?

23 people also want pricing

Alternatives Pricing

What is Muck Rack?

Muck Rack is a public relations offering from Sawhorse Media.

What is BuzzSumo?

BuzzSumo is an influencer marketing platform focused on influencer location, author reports, content analysis for locating trends, and domain comparisons, useful for competitor analysis. The analysis engine is intentioned to track and optimize content marketing efforts. BuzzSumo was acquired by…

Return to navigation

Product Details

What is Cision Communications Cloud?

Cision Communications Cloud® empowers communicators with tools that help them reach the right audiences, deliver impactful results across traditional, digital and social media, and track a brand in one integrated solution. Automated analysis helps users report and translate campaigns into insights.

Cision Communications Cloud Features

  • Supported: Media Monitoring and Analytics
  • Supported: Media Relationship Management
  • Supported: Social Listening

Cision Communications Cloud Screenshots

Screenshot of Media Monitoring and Analytics are just part of the complete Comms Cloud. It combines deep data dive with a database of journalists and influencers, and a media relationship management tool.Screenshot of Track brand mentions in real time across the millions of online stories on the internet. Monitor millions of stories and breaking news happening daily across the web. Professional services consultants teams are in place to ensure best practices while setting up a monitoring account.Screenshot of Cision’s media and influencer relationship management tools include audience insights, combined with a pitchable database that enables brands to uncover the best media contacts and social influencers to reach their target audience.Screenshot of Identify the social conversations and influencers that are impacting a brand. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube monitoring capabilities track brand mentions across all major social channels. Analyze results for social mentions or campaigns on the fly with its reporting features.

Cision Communications Cloud Videos

Media Relationship Management
Cision Social Listening

Cision Communications Cloud Competitors

Cision Communications Cloud Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

CIsion Communications Cloud is used for identifying key media and influencers, connecting with audiences, monitoring traditional and social media, and analyzing outcomes.

Agility PR Solutions, Meltwater, and Muck Rack are common alternatives for Cision Communications Cloud.

Reviewers rate Implementation Rating highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of Cision Communications Cloud are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(468)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Users have found this product to be incredibly versatile, with a range of use cases that cater to their specific needs. Customers have praised its ability to streamline communication within teams, making it easier for members to collaborate and share information. Reviewers have also noted its effectiveness in project management, with the product providing a centralized platform for planning, tracking progress, and assigning tasks. Additionally, users have found value in its functionality for customer relationship management, allowing them to keep track of interactions and effectively manage their customer base. Overall, the product has proven to be a valuable tool for enhancing productivity and improving efficiency across various industries and professional environments.

  • 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.

User Interface: Many users have found the user interface to be confusing, clunky, and not intuitive, making tasks difficult and cumbersome to navigate. These issues have been mentioned by multiple reviewers.

Search Tools: Some users have experienced issues with the search tools, which sometimes fail to pick up all the coverage or include irrelevant content, requiring additional clean-up work. This has been a common frustration among users.

Customer Service: Users have expressed frustration with the customer service/account team, stating that it takes repeated requests to get an answer from them. Multiple users have mentioned difficulties in getting timely responses from customer service representatives.

Users recommend entering into a trial or limited agreement first to test the software's suitability for the company. They suggest leveraging the support team for training and assistance with any questions. Users highly recommend Cision for its usefulness in public relations and media relations, as it is considered the most comprehensive media list monitoring software available, providing accurate and up-to-date contact information. Overall, Cision is recommended for organizations that require up-to-date media contact information and extensive news coverage, and it can benefit organizations in various capacities. Users advise contacting a representative to receive a thorough explanation of the features and functionalities of Cision. They find Cision very useful for PR purposes and suggest setting aside time to onboard oneself with all the features and functionalities of the platform. Users also suggest comparing Cision against other similar platforms and considering the level of support needed. In summary, users believe Cision is the industry standard and a reliable software option.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 144)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
  • [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.
  • Word processing software could be a bit easier to use, other than that, the whole platform is top-notch.
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.
Lou Corsaro | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
[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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
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.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I previously used Cision Communications Cloud (TrendKite)* for one of my clients at our agency. We used it to track and measure earned media mentions, along with analyzing where a lot of our coverage was coming from. From there, we would use that info to seek out new opportunities and conduct competitive analyses as to how we were stacking up against other products/companies in the space. It was also really nice to have the automatic reporting capabilities so we could download and export metrics to our client teams.
*[This review was written near the time Cision acquired TrendKite. TrendKite is now part of Cision Communications Cloud.]
  • Easy and attractive reporting capabilities.
  • Intuitive platform, very user-friendly.
  • Ability to measure results (like share of voice) that you couldn't do manually.
  • Time efficiency - takes the manual labor out of a lot of measuring and searching for journalists.
  • Hard to get your boolean/search query accurate.
  • Slow customer support from the technical side (not from the Sales side).
  • Media database is mostly updated, but not always
Great for if you have a client that is heavily focused on PR and needs a good system of measurement. If you're doing a lot with social, influencers or digital ads, there are other systems of measurement that would be better suited. However, it is very easy to use if you have a team with multiple members of different levels or if you work at an agency with multiple clients that would use the service.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Cision Communications Cloud (TrendKite)* for client alerts and searches, monitoring and listening, and reporting. Each account person leverages Cision Communications Cloud for their accounts. We specifically like the key message analysis, share of voice comparison against the competition or other brands within an organization, and social amplification. We also use the SEO score and like it's integrated with MOZ. It makes monitoring media coverage easier, pulling client results easier and really differentiates us from the competition when going after new business or helping guide clients with data-driven decisions. We use Cision's media database for media list development and we have access to Cision's analytics but isn't any good - especially compared to Cision Communications Cloud - the platform has not merged their analytics yet. Cision also offers social media posting but we still like Sprout Social better.
*[This review was written near to the time of Cision's acquisition of TrendKite. The former TrendKite product is now part of Cision Communications Cloud.]
  • "Talking About" option on media database
  • Widgets on Cision Communications Cloud and SEO value
  • The platform is easy to use
  • Customization of Cision Communications Cloud reports
  • Cision Communications Cloud customer service
  • Not all placements are picked up or a lot of times the wrong placements are included.
  • Although you can add in placements/coverage - it does not always end up in your report.
  • If you want wire coverage (e.g. - PRNewswire, PRWeb, Businesswire) it won't capture the coverage if it is behind a firewall or taken off the site so you need to capture a report the day it runs or it skews the results if you are creating monthly reports.
  • Now that TrendKite has merged with Cision not as many ebooks, resources and content is available - TrendKite used to have a great resource section.
  • Cision customer service isn't as responsive as Cision TrendKite's customer service reps
Cision Communications Cloud is great if you are looking for one place to set alerts, monitor coverage and pull results reports. However, now that the merge has happened the customer service for Cision (formerly TrendKite) has remained the same but Cision is just as bad as it used to be. It has become extremely expensive, very corporate and several products overlap. If there were cost-effective options that did the same as what I needed I would use those. I would use Cision if you are a PR expert who is looking for one place to house your media lists, lead generation, press releases, analytics, influencers and possibly social media.
May 14, 2021

Cision Review

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use it to monitor media hits and seek out specific publications relevant to our industry, then pitch ideas to them. It's a good way to help us find publications to reach our core audience that we never knew existed. It's a great way to help us position our company as thought leaders within the industry.
  • Media monitoring.
  • Media searches.
  • Social monitoring.
  • Better geographical searches.
  • Require more HARO details.
  • Require more Ed Calendar details.
It's a good tool to help find trades and specific publications to best help reach our audience. It makes all the difference in looking for new publications that reach our core audience within our industry. It helps us position ourselves as thought leaders within our industry and on a global stage.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Currently, Cision Communications Cloud is only used in our Public Relations department which consists of two employees. We primarily use it to look up contact information for media outlets and other writers. We've also used the TrendKite feature to monitor media coverage for both of our clients, which has proven to be very helpful in our monthly reporting.
  • Great at providing a full list of contacts for each outlet we're trying to reach.
  • TrendKite provides great insights for coverage, especially in terms of reach and SEO.
  • Robust system that provides what many others cannot.
  • Would like more features to flag contacts as inactive.
  • Would like to be able to modify contacts already listed, for those that may have switched jobs and Cision hasn't updated their files yet.
  • Oftentimes, the interface can feel "clunky," constantly having to click through things to find the information I'm looking for.
Cision is a robust tool that provides our team with all the information we need to best serve our clients. The only things holding me back from giving it a perfect score are that at times, the interface can feel a little clunky, meaning we have to click through a number of pages to find the information we are looking for.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Cision Communications Cloud is used at our organization to reach media outlets in our markets and influencers relevant to our specific audiences and to build brand awareness. It is used exclusively in the marketing department but supporting all departments of the organization. The business problem we are addressing with the Communications Cloud is brand awareness and assistance in reaching individuals who could benefit from online career training and take advantage of grant funding that covers the cost.
  • Customer Support and consistent outreach from account reps.
  • Resources and toolkits for best utilizing their products.
  • Providing accurate data and contact info.
  • Ease of use of influencer and outlet search tools.
  • Difficult to format email campaign templates.
  • Duplicates of contacts, outlets in lists.
  • Reporting breakdowns of campaigns, or emails of performance could be beneficial.
Cision Communication Cloud is well suited for finding influencers and news outlets in specific areas or industries, where you might not otherwise have connections. The search engine might not be well suited for very niche industries.
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Cision is used to monitor news coverage and build analytical reports. PR is looking into possibly using this for press releases. It is mainly used by the public relations team within the marketing department.
  • Media lists.
  • Fairly easy to use.
  • Searching for bios.
  • Variety of media outlets, news, blogs, etc.
  • Viewership data.
  • Search is not as accurate as we would like.
  • Database doesn't seem to be well maintained. Not always updated or accurate.
  • Receive too many emails. Seems that even if you unsubscribe, you still get alerts.
  • Can find news on Google that Cision does not carry or seemed to miss.
  • Very high priced for what you get.
  • Cision can be very slow at times, causing timeouts on our computers.
I would maybe recommend this to someone who has a smaller company that they want to measure. It's not really well suited for our R&D clients. It's high priced for following print, broadcast and social.
Lynn Meadows | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our agency has used Cision for many years. A year ago, we switched from the classic Cision to the Cision Communications Cloud. We mainly use this tool for building media lists. It helps us to better identify appropriate media contacts by location, subject area, type of publication, job role, etc. Theoretically, using Cision Communications Cloud provides the most current information on media contacts. We're told that Cision makes more than 20,000 updates a day. However, I have found that quite a few contacts are still outdated. We've provided frequent updates to Cision as we learn of incorrect information. I am the primary person using Cision in doing public relations work for my client — development and distribution of press releases, guest columns, media advisories, etc. My work sometimes includes the assistance of an intern. There is one additional person at our agency who uses Cision to build media lists for other clients. About a year ago, our agency switched to sending press releases out through the Cision platform for my client, rather than separately through Microsoft Word mail merge. Sending email press releases out through Cision provides an "opt out" function and also helps us to keep track of open rates.
  • When I send contact updates to Cision Communications Cloud customer support, they always reply, usually in a timely fashion.
  • I like the filters to the Cision Communications Cloud media lists which allow us to drill down by subject, job role, location, DMA, etc.
  • Our account manager (Mike Sullivan) has been friendly. He's been able to keep our subscription at the same price in recent years.
  • 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.
Cision Communications Cloud is good to help build media lists and keeping track of updates in media contacts — much better than if you were trying to do it without such a tool. It's good for sending out press releases via email, without having to pay additional money for PR Newswire. In addition, it's good if you have one main person at your company using Cision, as at least our subscription only allows one user at a time. It's less helpful if you have multiple users who need it simultaneously, as this would cost more. It's also less helpful for tracking outcomes because we don't have media monitoring, which would have cost an additional $10,000 or so. One of our clients did subscribe to media monitoring through Cision's NextGen, but it seems like the two platforms are not integrated very well. With this media monitoring, "clips" of print newspaper articles are provided via LexisNexis as text-only, and not as printed in the paper with a photo.
September 09, 2020

Improvements Could Be Made

Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The cloud is used just by the marketing department, and most specifically within the PR team. It helps us manage media lists.
  • Media lists.
  • Customer support/account service team.
  • Outlet metrics (uvms, circulation etc).
  • Search tool functionality.
  • Lack of details for contacts.
  • Slow updates to contacts.
It is well suited for those who manage media lists, distribution, email marketing, mass communication. It would not be appropriate for anyone outside of a marketing team at my company.
Erin Witt, APR | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Cision to distribute news releases, PR pitches, and inquiries to media for several of our key clients. It is primarily used by me, as I lead our PR efforts as well as content management. Since many of the clients I represent are in narrow verticals, the solution allows me to research what influencers have written about specific topics and better target my pitch to them. It also helps me quickly perform follow-ups on my pitches, rather than spending hours cutting and pasting a pitch into email and reformatting and personalizing for each recipient. The amount of time the product has saved me has been amazing. It is the most useful tool in my PR arsenal.

We also use the platform to scan the news for coverage for our clients, and to perform competitive analysis for new clients, or during the discovery process for existing clients. It allows us to provide a summary view of what others are saying about our client and its competitors, and to also share helpful content analysis facts, such as number of mentions, number of publications reached during a time period, key terms used, etc. It is a valued research tool.
  • Influencer research: I am able to quickly find the right reporter or editor for my pitch because Cision lets me know what they write about, their communications preferences, past articles, etc.
  • Distribution: I appreciate a template to help streamline my pitch and press release distribution that allows me to send my news to a targeted list of contacts without having to send individual emails. I can send out communications with just a few steps, in just a few minutes.
  • News search: I use Cision to scan for news and monitor for mentions of my clients. I also use this feature to keep tabs on topics and key terms of interest to me and my clients to stay ahead of emerging trends and stay on top of emerging discussions in my clients' industries.
  • I would like to see more COVID-19 search terms. This is here to stay. Many of my clients want information specific to this topic.
  • Let us monitor for reporters specifically writing about COVID-19. Make this a topic in the influencer search.
  • I wish I had more functionality when searching "all news" instead of just "my coverage." There are times I have a search fully set up and get no results back only to realize I am in "my coverage" instead of "all news" and have to start all over again— only to find that I can't do half of what I could have if I was only searching my coverage.
I think Cision is very helpful if you have a number of clients you are performing PR/media relations/content management for. It could also be very useful if you are working with a client or for a company that is often in the news—it can help you keep on top of the news funnel, and not miss coverage.

I think it is probably less necessary for clients who are only in the news infrequently, or for whom PR is not an active strategy. If you are looking for passive and infrequent monitoring or engagement with media, a less robust solution is probably sufficient.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Overall the tool is easy to use and you can find exactly what you need pretty quickly. The list save and export feature is very user friendly and makes it very efficient and a big time saver. I use for searches and then it's super easy to get more granular to generate lists specific to your goals. The reporting and monitoring is also very useful for understanding the impact of our efforts.
  • List building
  • Monitoring Impact
  • Reporting and ROI Tracking
  • Pricing can be difficult for smaller companies
  • Navigation can be confusing
  • Influencer marketing can use some better features
It's a great all-in-one communication tool that has a lot of time-saving features that makes our communication team and the value we provide for clients much better. Overall the impact having the tool has had on our company and our ability to show ROI can't be understated. If your company has the budget for the tool, it's a good investment.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We do niche book publicity. The media database helps me and my assistant put together customized media lists for publicity campaigns for our clients. It helps us to search and pinpoint contacts and their information in a wide variety of media outlets that would be perfect for our clients. It saves us a lot of legwork.
  • Customize searches by media type, location, and most importantly subject
  • Able to use key search words to help narrow down results
  • Provides key contact information we couldn't find otherwise.
  • Keeping more on top of updates. Listings or contact information is sometimes out of date. We have been starting to send in more notices about these.
  • We would like to see a separate media category for podcasts. The number of podcasts has increased dramatically over the last few years; many of them overlap with internet and radio, we would like to see them broken out in a separate category.
Cision Communications Cloud is good for people in businesses who need to find lists of media contacts. You can create broad lists, but the option for creating specific lists that target particular media or subject matter is what works best for us. We specialize in niche media campaigns for our authors and tailor our lists to their needs, which makes us unique.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Cision is used to enhance and monitor our Public Relations efforts. We keep track of media contacts, news coverage and social mentions. We use analytics to gauge sentiment in the marketplace. We monitor our competitors and compare earned media results. It's a fantastic way to pull month-end and periodic reports for Board review, we really appreciate not having to keep track of placements in spreadsheets!
  • Monitors media mentions. We can see where our news releases are published and we can see where there are stories about us that may require follow up with the journalist or publication.
  • Monitors competitors. We can easily see the news our competitors are sharing and the volume of coverage they receive. This gives us great benchmarking data to increase our share of voice in earned media.
  • Provides information about sentiment so we have an idea of overall perception the media is providing people about our company. This allows us to follow up and provide information and education where needed. It also lets us know where we need work to improve perception in the media.
  • Customizable Media lists. Create lists with freelancers and staff journalists. Include notes about contacts, pitch ideas, etc.
  • When people leave your organization, it can be difficult to change settings and automated emails.
  • More ability to customize searches and to tweak them without the assistance of Cision of staff.
We have found Cision to be a helpful reporting tool, which was the primary reason it was originally purchased. We wanted to have a better understanding of our coverage, sentiment and how we stack up versus our competitors. It has performed very well for us. We have not used the distribution services because we have another service we had already subscribed to. However, we are looking at combining the two in the future for a seamless PR tool that does everything we need it to do.
In addition to media relations, we also use it to track government contacts. It has been helpful to have our information in one place and out of a spreadsheet that could easily be overwritten or deleted.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The communications team at Clover is currently using Cision as a media database. If we're looking to do a beat-specific announcement, we will compile all the relevant reporters to conduct our outreach. Similarly, if we are mentioned in an article, or there is an industry reporter that we don't have a relationship with, we use Cision to find their contact information. While just used in one department, it is an essential aspect of the work the communications team is doing.
  • Always has up-to-date reporter information
  • Location-specific searches for media relations in local markets
  • Lists previous coverage and current interests of reports to more accurately target outreach
  • Sometimes it is missing contact information for key journalists.
  • Reporter beats could be more granular.
Cision Communications Cloud's media database is essential for media relations work. Reporters frequently change jobs and don't always share their contact emails, so getting in touch with them can be incredibly difficult at times. Having one place with an up-to-date list of all the reporters that I need to interact with empowers me to do my job more effectively.
June 17, 2020

Cision is the best

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Cision is being used across my entire organization - mainly amongst the PR team. It helps us find media contacts, monitor and analyze coverage.
  • Media contacts in different industries.
  • Filtering contact searches.
  • Tracking pitch opens and metrics.
  • Mass pitches.
  • Updating email addresses.
  • Making sure all coverage is picked up with monitoring tool.
Cision is great for creating media lists and segmenting them by different publication types and industries. I also love using it for mass pitching and tracking the contacts to see who has opened it up. For coverage - it doesn't always pick up every link especially if a publication is subscription based.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It's used only by the Marketing department right now. I'm the only company employee who spends time on PR (split with Customer Comms) and have one freelancer who we give access to use the platform. Our Digital Marketing Manager also uses the platform to help supplement monitoring HARO and for advertising information. Cision helps with competitor intelligence and understanding our PR reach.
  • Media database of reporters is always helpful and what I consistently come back to Cision for.
  • Monitoring: I find it harder now at a B2B organization to measure impact with Cision, but Cision's ability to monitor sheer volume and general impact has always been helpful.
  • Share of voice.
  • UX when it comes to switching between systems. I understand that it's a process that is long and can be difficult to accomplish but feels like as such a powerhouse Cision must have a faster process for this. e.g., Trendkite. Overall, as a user, I get the sense that Cision just buys companies and everything I touch as a user requires me to enter a new system/previous company's interface. It's also complicated to remember where things live, or how you get to similar aspects in other platforms (e.g., Distribution and Message Center).
  • HARO: I'm interested in certain search terms within HARO and am surprised there isn't a way to create an email alert based on my search term.
Cision is great for large companies and organizations that receive a lot of news (particularly mainstream news). As a mid-size B2B company, I'm less convinced now that Cision is the right tool when we're trying to gather measurement and impact among smaller trade publications. Cision considers those pubs to be small without much impact, but those are big hits for us. My measurement reports (e.g., SEO, audience reach, etc.) never look great because I'm not focused on the New York Times but on publications like Health+Safety Magazine or AutoSuccess. Not that I expect a weighted system or have an answer for this, I'm just not sure how much measurement helps us.
Cindy Arco | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Cision Communications Cloud (formerly Vocus PR Suite) is used by my department, which is a public relations team of myself and my boss. We also occasionally allow contractors/PR agencies we work with to use it temporarily for specific projects. We use the software for two primary purposes. First, we use Cision to research news media outlets and contacts and organize them in to media lists. Second, we use Cision's distribution feature to send a company news release or announcement to the members of a particular media list.
  • Cision Communications Cloud has an extensive media outlet database so it allows public relations and communications professionals to find the right media outlets and contacts for any media market in the United States and for just about any specialty or trade news media.
  • Cision Communications Cloud is very user-friendly. It's easy to navigate and find what you need, plus offers a lot of options for how to organize your contacts and media lists.
  • The customer support team at Cision is always very helpful and gets back to you quickly when you need assistance. Cision also offers online/teleconference training classes plus a great help section within the portal that contains articles and "how to" videos.
  • Cision could do a better job of keeping all media contacts in its database up to date. It is difficult because in today's media landscape, turnover is high BUT having the right names and contact information is critical for the public relations and communications professionals who use the software.
  • Cision could start offering lower cost package options for smaller companies or agencies. Right now, the cost of subscriptions is at a level that smaller organizations likely can't afford it but don't necessary need all the features that larger, enterprise companies will utilize and are willing and able to pay for.
Cision Communications Cloud (formerly the Vocus PR Suite) is well suited for public relations and communications professionals looking to research media outlets and contacts to target with news releases or company announcements, then be able to quickly send them out via a distribution throughCision (versus having to spend a lot more time sending individual emails to each person.) It's not as well-suited if a PR or communications professional always needs to share their news and announcements with a small, specific group of media contacts - in which case, it would be much more cost effective to maintain their own media list via an internal document and then send announcements out individually by email.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it to track media placements and mentions for a variety of clients that we serve as a PR agency. We use it across the entire agency but our clients do not use it. It helps us keep track of all the media placements in one place as well as do our monthly reporting on things such as share of voice, SEO impact, etc. to help show the value of our work to our clients.
*[This review was written before Cision acquired TrendKite. TrendKite is now part of Cision Communications Cloud.]
  • Media monitoring: good at catching broadcast clips and online clips compared to other tools I've used.
  • Share of voice against competitors is also easy to use and good to show the value of brand within the industry.
  • Some of the searches can be really complex to understand and can pick up a lot of unwanted media hits.
  • Setting up dashboards and learning to use them can be hard and have a bit of a learning curve.
I think Trendkite [when it was standalone] as a media monitoring system and reporting tool is the best there is out there, but I think you need more than just Trendkite to complete the job. I would recommend this over competitors like Meltwater, but I think you need this combined with Cision to really have all the right tools for a job in PR.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it across the whole organization to conduct daily scans of client and competitor news, as well as to conduct monthly and quarterly coverage and share voice reports.
*[ This review was written before Cision acquired TrendKite. TrendKite is now part of Cision Communications Cloud.]
  • Ease of use: easy to tag articles, build reports and comparisons
  • Customer service is always ready to help with anything.
  • Helps automate a very manual process.
  • The quality of the automated and developer implemented article filters: too many unwanted articles get through. Takes too long to make the articles pulled and the reports accurate. Eliminates the time savings pretty quickly.
  • Difficulty in self-building new searches.
It is very good at automating a very manual process and generating newsletters and reports. It has made these tasks easier. Where the product fails is at the accuracy of the articles it pulls. Too many articles that aren't accurate to the search parameters or that get by the filters. For example, when a filter is set for English only, it's incredibly frustrating to have to delete several foreign language articles from your feed and reports.
Roland Alonzi | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The agency uses Cision Communications Cloud (TrendKite)* across the entire PR department. We use it to measure and quantify the results that we generate for clients, and to create visually pleasing, easy-to-digest dashboards that we can incorporate into our reporting structure.
*[This review was written before Cision acquired TrendKite. TrendKite is now part of Cision Communications Cloud.]
  • Accurate reporting and measurement of editorial results
  • Easy-to-digest, visually impressive graphs that can be incorporated into reports
  • Easily sharable interactive reports that can measure share of voice among other valuable metrics
  • Bulk removal of irrelevant search results
I have already recommended Cision to many of my peers who have been using other measurement and reporting solutions. It is perfect for the agency environment, where you have to track results and measure them for a number of clients in many different industries.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Cision Communications Cloud (TrendKite)* is used within the PR/communications department to track sentiment and news coverage. It allows us to have a "big picture" view of our coverage in news stories.


*This review was written near the time Cision acquired TrendKite. TrendKite is now part of Cision Communications Cloud.
  • Dashboard view of news coverage
  • Search and tracking of news articles
  • Better searching capabilities.
  • Filter options for dashboard.
Cision Communications Cloud was very useful for reporting to executives, in particular, during crises. It was less helpful for day-to-day as it pulled in too much data that wasn't always relevant. Better filtering options would definitely help with this.
Olga Mochalova | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Cision Communications Cloud (TrendKite)* is used by the Communications department only to track media coverage and see the effect of our PR activities in the media, as well as some social media.
*[This review was written near the time Cision acquired TrendKite. TrendKite is now part of Cision Communications Cloud.]
  • The scope of media outlets Cision has is very good. It gives the mentions that one will never be able to find just doing Google or another online search.
  • I find the interactivity feature particularly useful. You can change the look of your dashboards adjusting the date range and other parameters whenever you want.
  • We'd like to still see more media outlets covered by Cision.
  • Sometimes it's not possible to add the article that we want to be in the list manually.
All in all, it's a great platform to track media coverage related to your company's activities, assess the impact you're having, see the audience you're reaching and compare with your competitors if necessary. However, since the search is automated you still need to check the relevance of the selected articles manually.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Cision Communications Cloud (TrendKite)* for a number of reasons. On the day-to-day, it provides a quick snapshot into our earned media mentions, as well as serving as a source of information specifically related to our industry. At a higher level, we are able to see the value of our earned media and quantify ROI of our media outreach efforts. Another reason I find Cision Communications Cloud to be so valuable is the extensive list of media contacts and the ability to search for journalists who are interested in and already writing about our industry.
*[This review was written before Cision acquired TrendKite. TrendKite is now part of Cision Communications Cloud.]
  • Aggregate sources of media mentions
  • Extensive list of journalists
  • UX related to some of the search functions
  • UX related to query building
Cision CommunicationsCloud is well suited to give you an overview of how your earned media strategy is performing. The tool gives you the ability to see how you are performing against your peers as you can see market share of earned media. The Cision tool isn't going to develop the strategy for you, but it can be set up in a way that can help you maximize performance of your plan.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are currently using Cision Communications Cloud (TrendKite)* to monitor client coverage. It catches coverage for us that we can't always access through a simple Google search.

*This review was written before Cision acquired TrendKite. TrendKite is now part of Cision Communications Cloud.
  • Customer Service
  • User Friendly
  • Automatic setup systems (like daily emails) for users instead of having to ask a rep.
Great for companies that want to track share of voice and coverage in the media. Highly recommend over competitors!
Return to navigation