Cision Communications Cloud

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.

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.

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.

Cision is perfect for a PR firm, or a larger in-house agency. We use the product to find media contacts and you can also use it to monitor trends in news.

Dollar for dollar, Cision is fantastic compared to what is on the market right now. It's difficult for me to tell you where it could pose risk to your company or be less appropriate because I feel it's very industry-specific.

If you need to do media outreach, media monitoring, or follow reporters on a curated contact list, Cision is an excellent platform. It's the 800-pound gorilla in the media monitoring room for a reason. However, its price likely puts it out of reach for small businesses looking to monitor their own media coverage — it's best suited for an agency environment where you can defray the cost across a number of clients.

If you need to monitor media coverage and provide straightforward, customizable reports, Cision has been the best platform I have used for that purpose. I also have experience with MuckRack and Meltwater, and to this point, Cision's reporting mechanism is the best.

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.

The real core value in Cision's offering is its robust media database. While some of the other fringe offerings are ok (reporting, reporter inquiries, distribution), they alone would not justify paying for the service because there are other companies out there that do a better and cheaper job with those offerings. The bottom line is that we would not be able to do what we do as effectively without the media database.

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.

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].

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.

Cision Communications Cloud (TrendKite)* is great for pulling reports for a specific time period or launch. If your client has a product launch and wants to see all coverage (syndicated included) from that launch time period it works very well. Also works well for monthly/quarterly reports to demonstrate value for executives and board members who might not understand the value of PR. Probably not the best if you wanted to highlight ONLY work the agency has done and not include syndicated information.

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.

In full transparency, I have not used a Cision Communications Cloud Competitor. However, the service does exactly what I need it to do -- media monitoring and distribution -- and I rarely have any issues. If I do, the great customer service team takes care of these issues in a timely manner. Because of this, I would absolutely recommend Cision Communications Cloud.

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.

Depending on the size and scale of the work needed to be done I would or would not recommend Cision, because of cost.

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.

My experience is specifically with sending a press release via PR Newswire through Cision Communications Cloud. This is a great fit for the times in which you want to send a press release for a big update or change. However, due to the price, I wouldn't use it for small releases, but it does have a really wide reach so it is great for large releases. Plus, the process is not overly time consuming once you have the release written.

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.

Cision Communications Cloud is very suited for creating maximum visibility to your press releases. You can select the sector, editors, writers, bloggers, and media channels that your release is best suited for. It certainly delivers the releases to these people because you can see the results. Also, there is a great "connection" between Cision and Google to get articles and stories ranked and visible.

Cision is perfect for any PR agency—small or large—looking to broaden their reach while reducing upfront target media research. The tool itself doesn't require much learning, allowing even interns the ability to research, develop, and share media lists with senior members of the team. For companies managing multiple lists, the online database is a no-brainer.

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.

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.

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.