PR Software Trials and Tribulations

With a mix of PR software tools available now as SaaS, there are lots of choices available to help make media relations easier. I’ve been evaluating a few of them over the last few months to determine what best fits the needs of the small technology company that I’m working for. Ultimately I ended up deciding to go with Vocus as our PR software solution and I’m pretty happy with our decision. It wasn’t the cheapest solution but it has a good user interface, robust database, has good customer support and the ability to track projects, emails and social media all from within the one software application. What I didn’t expect was the awesome abilities of PRWeb as an integrated component to Vocus for distributing our press releases and media communications. The analytics are great and the SEO features and coverage we’ve received since switching has been ten times better than the prior PR release service we were using.

Here is the shortlist of the evaluations worth mentioning.

Cision (they were the closest competitors to Vocus when I evaluated them. They had a good selection of choices with their database and tracking features, but an outdated interface and a weird point system for sending out emails to the media and press releases. They were slightly less expensive than Vocus but had a lot of odd pricing structures and quite frankly I was really put off by their sales person spending the whole time talking to me about how bad Vocus was instead of selling me on their product.

MyMediaInfo They offer a similar media database that you can create lists with online but was a pared down solution compared to Vocus or Cision.

Bulldog Reporter
This is one service that is hard to determine what you need and what they offer. Everything is al a carte and the site has so much on it that subscribing to just one service that does everything just doesn’t seem to be an offering. At first I was impressed with the breadth of their offerings, however much of the information I got from their database during the trial was old and outdated and watch out because their “risk-free” trial subscription apparently continues onto a full blown subscription and they will send you an invoice for the entire bill. Overall, I wanted this to be a good solution but I was less than impressed with the quality.

Vocus I chose Vocus because not only did it meet my needs which was having an accurate and up to date media database, but being able to track events and editorial calendars while providing a solid solution for distribution of our press releases and news announcements. It took a little while to get used to the software but I was up and running the first day after signing the contract. I would recommend Vocus to any sized business who is driving in house PR and I would highly recommend that even small businesses start with the professional edition and get the social media tracking capabilities because it’s well worth the extra money.