In the newest episode of AI Loves PR, Jonny Bentwood, Global Head of Data & Analytics at Golin, breaks down how earned media is the fuel that powers LLMs. “Over 90% of visibility within AI tools is driven by citations from earned media,” he says. That includes mainstream news but also sources you might overlook.
“Reddit is the most influential channel for AI visibility,” Bentwood reveals. Its comment threads, upvotes, and long-tail content often surface in LLM training sets, which means brands that appear in Reddit discussions are more likely to show up in AI-generated responses. He notes, “You might not have a Reddit strategy, but AI does.”
The episode dives into how LLMs determine authority and rank responses. Bentwood outlines five pillars his team uses to evaluate influence: relevance, reach, engagement, traffic, and authority. “If a site has technical relevance and traffic but low engagement, it won’t shape AI as much as a niche forum with high comment depth,” he says.
For comms pros looking to boost visibility, Bentwood offers practical technical guidance. Make sure your URLs are clean and descriptive. Remove unnecessary code and clutter. “You don’t need all that JavaScript: simplify your pages so AI can crawl them efficiently.” He also emphasizes optimizing for retrievability: “You need to think like the machine. Is your content clear, authoritative, and linked to by others?”
Bentwood affirms the opportunity for PR: AI visibility is earned, not paid. And those who understand how AI values and ranks sources will be the ones shaping the next generation of influence.