Cision Communications Cloud Review
October 26, 2018
Cision Communications Cloud Review
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
TrendKite
Overall Satisfaction with Cision Communications Cloud
I use Cision Communications Cloud (TrendKite)* as our primary PR monitoring software. It addresses three key problems I face in my day-to-day role as a PR professional:
- Discovering the blogs and news sites where our brand and products are mentioned
- Understanding the impact of these mentions to our business
- Providing an easy-to-use reporting tool to share results based off these mentions
- Reporting: the interactive reports you can generate via Cision's home dashboard are easy to manipulate, a breeze to share and look terrific.
- Evolving: I've been impressed with how the company has grown and evolved in the last two years, adding valuable products and services such as contact lists, landing page designs, social listening etc.
- Data-lead: as someone who works in a business that prides itself on being data focussed, having my PR monitoring solution move easily in this world has been a big plus.
- It's not the most intuitive UI - cluttered and sometimes confusing - so you'll need to be patient to wrap your head around its navigation and labelling.
- You'll need to be good at boolean searches - or at least, have a grasp of how they work - to get the most out of the Cision dashboards. If not, you will be extra reliant on your account manager to get you going and keep your searches on track.
- A minor quibble, but as an overseas customer (Australia), my access to the semi-regular webinars is very limited, as they are often run in a US-focussed time zone.
I've been disappointed with how slow iSentia Mediaportal has been in modernising its platform. While I used it regularly a number of years ago for a different in-house PR position, my overriding impression was that it was struggling to shift its focus from traditional media (print, radio, TV) and into the realms of online. Cision Communications Cloud (TrendKite)* beats it hands down here, with greater and more digital-focussed functionality to boot.
Meltwater has improved significantly over the last few years and was the other main contender for our custom when we last renewed our contract. One of the things that helped tip Cision Communications Cloud over the edge was its inclusions for the price. While Meltwater could offer most of what Cision did, and in a slightly better UI to boot, the full functionality would be almost double the price.
Meltwater has improved significantly over the last few years and was the other main contender for our custom when we last renewed our contract. One of the things that helped tip Cision Communications Cloud over the edge was its inclusions for the price. While Meltwater could offer most of what Cision did, and in a slightly better UI to boot, the full functionality would be almost double the price.