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Cadillac PR Software
Updated January 20, 2017

Cadillac PR Software

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

N/A

Modules Used

  • N/A

Overall Satisfaction with Cision Communications Cloud

I selected Cision PR Software for our division to use. I also manage our PR agency and have set them up with a user seat in the software. The business problem it addresses is providing monthly reports for our executives to track our ROI and metrics. It also is very useful for building out media lists to pitch to. Our PR agency also distributes our news blasts as they are relevant to certain media lists we have built.
  • Media List Building
  • Looking up Media Outlets or Specific Media Contacts
  • Monthly News Coverage Reporting
  • The daily emails detailing news coverage results are set up with key words and unless you are very specific, it will pull in coverage that isn't relevant to your tracking needs.
  • If the trade publications your company places articles in are super niche, they likely won't be tracked/picked up through the software, and you have to manually add them as they publish.
  • The executive dashboard and dashboard widgets are a little wonky and require some finessing in order to work properly.
  • More granular tracking on publicity value of our news coverage
  • Snapshots of how we are stacking up against our competition in the news
  • The actual reach of our audiences (by the #'s, and the regions) in each publication our articles appear
The only two PR software programs I have ever used were Cision and Vocus. Cision tends to be the "Cadillac" PR software, and Vocus held a close second. Now that Cision has acquired Vocus it isn't even a question any more on which software to use. Hands down I recommend Cision; as long as you have an adequate budget and are going to execute a PR program detailing a solid plan, and mappable objectives. There are some smaller PR software programs out there, and they would suffice if you have a very limited budget and only need to use it for a few things. This is the software you purchase if you are a: boutique PR agency with 10 or more employees, a mid-large size company with several divisions, or a start up company with a decent amount of budget allocated to PR programs.

If you have a solid PR program you are running, and the budget money you allocate towards the software provides adequate return for your execution and tracking needs; this is great software. It is definitely one of the leading PR software programs out there, especially since they acquired their main competitor, Vocus.


For those who have limited PR budget dollars, I'd recommend shopping for a program that has a few less "bells and whistles," depending on what you need to use it for. Another option, if you are a bigger company is to look for another division in your company to split the cost and get added seats. Or if you are a smaller firm, see if you can find another small company to go in with you to purchase the annual subscription. Lots of ways to approach this.


Questions to ask:

  • How do the four tabs work? (Plan, Connect, Monitor, Analyze)
  • Can you show us a demo?

Transition from TrendKite to Cision Communications Cloud

While I think the support is decent; there is room for improvement. Typically the time lapse from problem to solution is 3-5 days. It would be better if this could be shortened to 1-2 days or 24 hours.

Cision Communications Cloud Support

ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
No escalation required
Quick Initial Response
Not kept informed
No - I don't think this is an option with Cision.
Yes - Not really. It was with their executive dashboard where the widgets are located. It never seemed to work very well for us. And, when I raised this issue with their team; I was told to clear my cache and try from different computers and browsers. It still never worked - and they claimed it did when they went into the system to check it.
Our account rep was very hands-on with our issues. Once I got her involved and expressed my concern with the issues we were having - she was extremely vigilant regarding our account and made it a priority to address any issues we had.