About This Constellation ShortList™
Customers continue to turn to credible, trusted third-party editorial and media sources to influence and confirm buying decisions. Yet in an age of always-on content and always-present misinformation, content consumers have become far more savvy in selecting what they consider to be influential or credible.
This has changed the expectation and demand on earned media management tools that now must help develop content and stories while also managing the segments of journalists, influencers, and online and offline publications being sought out by a brand’s customers. Communications and PR leaders increasingly expect more sophisticated and integrated communications solutions that deliver more than press release distribution and journalist databases. Earned media platforms must serve as media and influencer CRM systems, engagement automation platforms and earned media impact analytics tools that can quantify the business impact of PR, media and influencer relations.
Earned media management continues to be an evolving segment where automation, AI and data to take center stage as savvy practitioners and communications leaders look to deploy technologies to streamline workflows as well as track performance and effectiveness while making inroads to better connect actions and impact more closely
to business outcomes.
This Constellation ShortList reviews solutions that look to engage brands with their buyers in bidirectional conversations and relationships built on top of earned media mentions, coverage and commentary.
Threshold Criteria
Constellation considers the following key criteria for these solutions:
- Ease of use across multiple points of access (web/mobile)
- CRM for media and influencers with updated database with contact management
- Real-time monitoring across all forms and formats of news media, social media, word of mouth, organic digital mentions, influencer commentary and customer-generated content and reviews
- Global media distribution of multimedia content
- Intelligence and analysis of sentiment, tonality and direction
- Workflows and automated campaigns for follow up and ongoing engagement
- Cross-team or cross-client collaboration, scheduling and approvals
- Secure controlled access with rule- or role-based controls
- Global reach with superior local intelligence and insight
- Analytics, measurement and reporting
- Application of machine learning or artificial intelligence techniques to boost accuracy of media database, media monitoring aggregation, sentiment analysis and campaign outcomes, and content improvement recommendations
- Quality service, help desk and ongoing support
The Constellation ShortList™
Constellation evaluates over 40 solutions categorized in this market. This Constellation ShortList is determined by client inquiries, partner conversations, customer references, vendor selection projects, market share and internal research.
- AGILITY PR
- CISION
- CRITICAL MENTION
- MELTWATER
- MUCKRACK
- NOTIFIED
- PROWLY
Frequency of Evaluation
Each Constellation ShortList is updated at least once per year. Updates may occur after six months if deemed necessary.
Evaluation Services
Constellation clients can work with the analyst and research team to conduct a more thorough discussion of this Constellation ShortList. Constellation can also provide guidance in vendor selection and contract negotiation.