1. Home
  2. Public Relations (PR) Software Tools
  3. Cision Communications Cloud Reviews
  4. User Review of Cision Communications Cloud
Not Flawless But the Best PR Database I've Used
Updated December 04, 2014

Not Flawless But the Best PR Database I've Used

Susan Tull | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

CisionPoint

Overall Satisfaction with Cision PR Software

  • Helps a PR professional identify the right media contacts quickly.
  • Enables easy bulk emailing to news media and bloggers.
  • Makes it easy and efficient to find out about editorial calendar opportunities for any number of media outlets.
  • Cision could do a better job of keeping its data fresher. Too often, I report editorial staff changes that Cision's research department should have already discovered.
  • The tool for building emails is buggy and the work-arounds add more time to my work.
  • Efficiency in identifying the right journalists and bloggers so I can build high quality media lists.
  • Efficiency in distribution of news releases and other communications to hundreds of journalists and bloggers.
There was a major outage of the service earlier this year, rendering the system unusable for the better part of a day and partially during the following day. It was very difficult to get information about what was happening until I persisted and finally got to talk with a supervisor. Cision did not send me (and presumably others) real time updates, so those of us who had to issue news releases on those days were left in the lurch.
I prefer Cision to Vocus -- better content and information, plus great ability to filter and get the information you want/need for precise targeting of the right media outlets, editorial contacts and editorial calendar opportunities.

Using Cision PR Software

1 - PR consultant
  • I use Cision daily to identify appropriate journalists and bloggers and also get their contact information. Additionally, I search the database for editorial calendar opportunities. And I send emails and news releases to these contacts -- sometimes hundreds of them -- via Cision's bulk email tool.

Evaluating Cision PR and Competitors

Prior to Cision, I used Vocus.

Cision PR Implementation

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).
  • Vendor implemented
It's a cloud-based service that the company just "turns on" for me to use. All I have to do is login.

Cision PR Training

  • Online training
  • Self-taught
Basic functionality is easy to learn without training/attending instructional webinars but if you want to use drill-down features, one-on-one training and webinars are best. That said, I always feel that customer support professionals, and my account executives, are pushing me away from one-on-one training and instead to use online resources. I learn better from one-on-one training so I don't appreciate this pressure.

Cision PR Support

I cannot always get a hold of someone who is fully familiar with all aspects of the system. I've actually received incorrect information when seeking technical support. And immediately following a recent major system upgrade that disrupted some key functionality, the customer service was atrocious. Although I later found out that the company was aware of the problems and working to correct them, I never received any type of notification and, instead, wasted a lot of time trying to figure out the problem. It was frustrating and I was unable to perform some time-sensitive work.
No - No need for that level of support.

Using Cision PR

It's improved a lot. I used a much earlier version of Cision several years ago -- before I switched to Vocus and then moved back to Cision this past September. By the time I came back to Cision, the user interface has been simplifed and the product has become much more user-friendly.

Cision PR Reliability

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.

Integrating Cision PR

Relationship with Cision

I was able to get Cision to handle importation of about 10-12 media lists from my legacy PR database without charging me about $1,000. I also got several thousand extra distribution points at no charge, enabling me to send more news releases and other communications to more contacts every year without paying extra. I tried but was unable to get any other type of discount on the North American database, the Cision product I use.