Public relations is a very crucial part of your company’s success; in essence, it encompasses customer support, marketing as well. It is the image by which your whole company is judged. Therefore, choosing your public relations software is a big decision, it’s not something to take lightly.
It doesn’t matter how outstanding your product or service is; if your support, customer service, and interaction with the public is unpleasant – in any way – you’re going to leave a ‘bad taste in peoples’ mouths’ and hurt the success of your company.
On top of this, simply not being proactive enough in engaging people in public forums (such as social networks and media platforms) can result in a loss of interest or even public awareness of your product.
So, in this modern era – of about eighty bazillion communications platforms and channels – you better pick some slick software to handle public engagement. Luckily there are a ton of choices out there, many of which are excellent. I can’t list all of them, but I can point out the ones I think are the most promising.
#1 – Vocus PR Suite
Vocus is one of the most flexible and inclusive PR systems out there. With a very digital centrism to its design, this system monitors bloggers, press releases, news feeds. It allows you to easily publish and engage all this data from a single dashboard without dealing with different formats and submission standards.
The ability to broadcast -with a single press of a button- used to be impractical. But somehow, Vocus (and a couple others on this list) found a way to make this work. With its ability to monitor a multitude of social conversations, blog posts and forum conversations across all social networks, you will never miss an opportunity to engage with your audience. Vocus also boasts the ability to measure the influence and prominence of any given feed, topic or community with detailed analytics. Vocus PR Suite is a definite game changer in the world of public relations software.
#2 – Cision
Cision is so confident in their design, that they will let you try it for free. And, I’m not talking about a freemium model with limited features. During the trial, you have access to the entirety of their features; they won’t hide anything from you.
And you know what? They have nothing to hide – and everything to show off. Cision, as they put it, ‘is for people with a story to tell.’ Focusing on media connections and outlets, Cision keeps a comprehensive database of media platforms and trends; they are then analyzed, updated and tabulated to enable smart placement of any outreach you have. As well know, mobile is one of the most targeted media channels possible.
Offering SEO support, search analytics, traffic measurement and one of the fastest parallel distribution systems I’ve seen to date, Cision is brilliant. If you’re more focused on media than social networks, then this is the choice for you.
#3 – PR Newswire
PR Newswire is a little bit of a different story from the other two. It came into being in the traditional software age, and brought some real game to the table. PR Newswire started out by revolutionizing commercial news distribution over half a century ago; now they bring this experience, skill and their tried-and-true techniques to the digital millennium.
Like Vocus, they offer an easy one-click distribution, of multiple formats, over a number of heuristically charted channels and backlinks. Building on a series of user patterns and flows, they offer a level of experience that the others just can’t boast yet. While they offer some of the same features as Vocus, they’re less ‘snazzy’ regarding the social media aspect (though they will soon remedy this), so weigh the significance of your targeted social channels wisely.
Public relations is important, and you really can’t go wrong with these top public relations software services. Just think about your company goals and choose the one that best suits your needs.