LinkedIn is becoming an important source for AI answers.
So in this week's episode, we're gonna unpack the research together so
that B2B marketers know exactly what they should be paying attention to.
G'Day everyone.
It's Michelle J Raymond here, and this week listeners, we're gonna be talking
about all things AI and specifically this week about how tools like ChatGPT
Perplexity, and Co are all starting to cite LinkedIn more often in their results.
Now on the surface, this sounds really exciting, but is all
as it appears on the surface.
Of course, by my tone, I guess you know that I have some
differing opinions about this.
Mostly what I wanna focus on in today's episode is what parts of LinkedIn
should you be focusing on to make sure that you maximise your chances of your
content, of your page, of your profile, all being cited by these AI tools.
So I will do my best.
It is an ongoing conversation, so I may have to do a follow up episode because
the research that's coming out is coming out thick and fast and it's, you know,
gonna be fun to try and keep up with.
So let's dive into that right after this quick word from our
podcast sponsors, Metricool.
If you haven't seen it already, there are two key pieces of
research that have come out.
One by Profound and one by SEMRUSH.
And both are really, really interesting and I will make sure that the links
are included in the podcast summary.
So make sure that you go across the LinkedIn, connect with me and
subscribe to my LinkedIn newsletter.
That's typically where I put that information first.
I will be making sure that I expand on my thoughts that I'm covering here today and
include things like screenshots, which often make it easier to follow along.
So if you're listening to this via audio or shout out to those over
on YouTube, there is going to be a lot more detail in the newsletters.
So please do come across in subscribe, and thank you in advance.
Let's talk about what's out there exactly.
Now, fact number one, let's just start with that yes, LinkedIn is
increasingly being cited by AI systems.
So that's a fact.
Every second post I'm seeing at the moment from a LinkedIn employee
is basically highlighting the fact that LinkedIn is being cited.
They're shouting the fact that LinkedIn has become the most cited
domain for professional queries.
Now, there are two pieces to that statement that you really
need to pay attention to.
Cited domain, so that is linkedin.com.
So that's not your post necessarily, but as a whole, linkedin.com is
the one that's being cited for and part two, professional queries.
I mean, that makes sense, right?
LinkedIn has such a great database.
That is people, companies, job roles, expertise.
So if you are AI and you wanna put forward the best answer to
these queries, of course LinkedIn is going to pop up in that.
The other thing that I wanna talk about is this automatic assumption
that if linkedin.com is being cited more by the AI tools, then posting
more will get you cited by AI tools.
Now that's a pretty big oversimplification at best, and what I want you to have
a think about, and I will share the stats, when you look at the Profound
research, which I've done a lot of digging into it, so you don't have
to, but essentially on their charts, yes, posts went up and increased
their share of being shown in results.
Articles and newsletters also went up and on the surface.
That's amazing.
So it was around, I don't know, 25, 30%.
So that also means that 70 odd percent of the content that's out there
isn't being picked up by these tools.
And on the other side, in this particular research, they're also showing
that profiles dropped significantly
Now.
There's a so many different ways that we can look at this, but what
it shows is, yes, the data shows us that LinkedIn content is appearing
more and more often, but it doesn't prove that posting more frequently
is the answer to making sure that it drives AI visibility for your brand.
Let's go to fact two.
Not all LinkedIn content performs the same in AI answers.
Now the SEMRUSH study is one that I think is actually more aligned and
something that we should pay more attention to, and this is the second
round of info that they've released.
The last lot was out in around October last year, which I
was a big fan of as well.
I'm not getting paid to talk about this, just to put that out there,
but the SEMRUSH study analysed tens of thousands of LinkedIn URLs
that were cited by AI, and that was across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and
Perplexity, some of the main ones.
And one of the actual interesting things that showed up for me was that
actually just because a post goes viral.
It's very rare that the AI systems actually cite those posts, so there's more
to this than just content that's popular.
There's more to this than just getting lots and lots of engagement.
And when you think about this, it marries up with how the LinkedIn feed works.
And the LinkedIn feed currently is optimising for relevancy.
So are you a credible authority, showing up consistently, driving
conversations, on an area or topic, that is one key focus for you?
And that applies to your Company Page as well.
And interesting fun fact Company Pages were cited more often than actual
individual profiles in this study.
So from that perspective, there's so much reason to have a look into this
and not ignore Company Pages like everybody would have you believe.
The most important thing when we're analysing all of this is,
AI systems they optimise for explanations, authority, and clarity.
If you think about it, the LinkedIn feed rewards content that spreads, but the
AI system rewards content that explains.
Fact three in today's episode is definitely that
fundamentals still matter most.
And that is exactly what B2B marketers should be most focused on.
You also now can understand why I have been banging on about marketing
fundamentals and staying on track, I would say for the most of this podcast, but
definitely since the start of the year.
So if you've missed some of those episodes, please go back and check it out.
There are probably three fundamentals that I think if you want your brand
to get cited by AI using LinkedIn.
Number one is clear expertise.
The AI systems need to understand who you are, what you do
and what you are known for.
So that means if we go onto the next step, you need really strong
profiles and Company Pages.
So if you haven't gone back and updated those and made sure all of
that information is whole and complete and shows the AI and people, more
importantly, who you are, what you do, and what makes you different,
and also what problem you solve.
I would add in there for Company Pages.
Then ultimately, if you confuse them, you lose them.
I've said that also a thousand times on this podcast.
So making sure that you're leaning into your positioning and coming
back to make sure that all of the foundational bits, Profile, Company
Page and your content are all aligned with what you wanna be known for.
If we do those things consistently, that's when AI's little eyes light up
and that's when they're looking for you as a credible source that they can cite.
Now interestingly, as part of my research, there is a lot of research
going on out there that is actually disproving how AI tools cite information
and that it's not always accurate.
So there's my little star and disclaimer on this one.
Think about it like not everything's perfect and sunshine and fairies
like many would have you believe.
And certainly, again, posting more is not the solution.
The other thing that I would like to say here, just as part of this, is yes, posts
that support the system, maybe not getting cited by ChatGPT or Perplexity or any of
the models that you like to use, but it doesn't mean that they're not valuable.
So can we not just run off and instead of pleasing the algorithm gods now
think, how do we please the AI gods?
We are not doing that.
Because the content that we're creating ultimately is about building visibility
and credibility with your target audience.
You know, those real humans that pay the bills at the end of the day.
But doing these things will support your expertise footprint, and when
we look at it like that and know that they're not gonna replace it,
then that really is a game changer.
So I know that if you have a look at the posts that are coming from
LinkedIn employees, they will absolutely be encouraging you to post more.
And if you stop and think, why are they doing that?
Duh.
They have a vested interest in you spending more time.
Why?
Because if you scroll more.
You're gonna watch more ads, and if you watch more ads,
guess who makes more money?
LinkedIn.
So often follow the money trail.
After this quick break, I'm gonna go into some practical tips about
how I think you can use linkedin.com to increase the chances of your
brand being cited in the AI tools.
So let's do that next.
What does it look like if we practically apply the things that we've been
talking about in today's episode?
And again, I've tried to keep it at a high level, a simple
level that you can understand.
Please do go and subscribe to my LinkedIn newsletter and have a look
at the most recent additions where I dive into this, give you all the links
to the research and make sure step by step you can break this down and
have conversations in your business.
You need any more help or looking for some more clarity.
You know, I'm always here to help you guys.
I wanna talk first about some practical tips and different ways that you can
explore what content is, first of all, being indexed by Google 'cause if it's
indexed by Google, then it will be discovered by the large language models.
And keep in mind.
Those models aren't learning immediately the day that something
goes and gets indexed by Google.
They take time.
It's not that instant gratification that we think that the whole
world lives in these days.
So patience is a virtue.
Doing things consistently is what these tools love.
They want you to be the authority in your area and be consistent around that.
One of the best ways that I know that you can do this is LinkedIn articles,
and even better, I think LinkedIn newsletters are indexed by Google.
They have stable pages.
You can have the structure that the AI tools love with headings and subheadings,
and ultimately these are what are popping up in a lot of the answers.
So think about what is your audience going to Google or going to the AI tools.
Looking for answers and can you create a newsletter that answers that question?
Now, some of you might think, yes, we've already done that.
It's on our website.
Well, here's what I do.
I put it on my website and I put it in my LinkedIn newsletter.
Why do I do that?
I double my chances.
By being able to piggyback on what happens with linkedin.com being such
a trusted domain, which it always has been, then I can piggyback on
their success and hopefully increase my chances and bonus points I always
share this stuff in my email newsletter with the audience that I own.
Ultimately, I'm gonna share some links in the show notes today where you can
do a simple search on Google and have a look at what information is showing
on Google in relation to your posts.
And you might be really interested 'cause you can do a bit of digging
and realise when it comes to posts, there is not that much that shows up.
When you think about, broad topics and see the results, you'll be mind blown.
Even for me, I've been creating content for 10 years and I did a
simple search around all of the information it could find as Michelle
J Raymond as a creator on LinkedIn.
What post it had, indexed and all the other information.
Honest to God, there was like a very small percentage, like I'm
talking teeny tiny, given how much content that I put out there.
So you know, if I'm doing it that for that long, that consistently,
and you're only just starting and it's not working, you just gotta
give it more time and more energy.
I guess as we look at this, there is going to be more and more studies pop up.
There is gonna be more and more talk around yeah, just post more on LinkedIn.
That's the answer.
LinkedIn gets cited.
Just remember, it's not your posts that are being cited in the answers most
likely it's linkedin.com, so whether that's profiles, pages, content.
Articles and newsletters, or even the linkedin.com help pages, that is what is
being cited so just keep that in mind.
Take everything with a grain of salt, and if you need some help optimising
your Page or your Profile, then reach out to me and we can make sure that you
are giving your brand the best chance possible of being cited by these tools.
I know today's episode has probably been a little tech heavy, compared to
like a lot of my other episodes, and I appreciate you for lasting this long
because I think this is an important topic, one that cannot be oversimplified.
Also one that will reward those that stay on track, stay consistent and
stick with the marketing fundamentals.
And if you're a B2B marketer that's been listening to this episode, that
should be music to your ears because I love the fact that I feel like the cheap
vanity metrics of engagement and likes and impressions, slowly but surely being
replaced by authority, and that's the kinda LinkedIn that I wanna be a part of.
So until next week, cheers.