There is so much noise right now about how the ultimate hack to getting your brand featured in AI results is simply to ensure it is all over Reddit.

The popular advice is to make sure you’ve got a number of posts mentioning your brand across the right topics and, BOOM, ChatGPT will be your number one lead generator and biggest brand advocate.

But is Reddit really the one place you should focus your AI Visibility efforts to get results?

Firstly, Reddit IS important to getting your brand found in AI tools

Let’s get the quick bit out of the way. Reddit DOES play a role in the knowledge gathered by the Large Language Models (LLMs), and therefore, it does impact which brands are included in their answers.

We know this by looking at LLMs themselves. OpenAI have been transparent about their partnership with Reddit since last year, Gemini leverages Google’s existing Reddit partnership and Perplexity are currently being sued for scraping Reddit to train their LLM.

It is true that User Generated Content, and particularly Reddit, is rapidly growing in momentum as one of the major sources of data used by AI tools when deciding who and what to surface in the answer.

There is also a growing pile of evidence that tells us Reddit is important in shaping AI’s decision-making. From a recent analysis of a quarter of a million Reddit posts, Semrush found that Reddit is among the most cited sources by the major LLMs.

Will loads of brand mentions actually get you in the answer? Well, yes, sort of…

This is the big question. Pretty much every major brand across the globe (at least every brand that’s even remotely switched on) is currently scrabbling to make sure that they are the brand that AI tools are recommending when their target audience asks their favourite LLM which product or service to use.

Right now, the data shows us that this will likely get results, so this should be part of your strategy. But this comes with two important caveats.

1. Not all mentions are equal, and AI tools are not simply counting how many times your brand name appears in a thread.
2. Context matters. Who is mentioning you? Why are they mentioning you? What is the sentiment of the mention?

So Reddit is the secret silver bullet?

Actually, no.

This is exactly why we came up with the concept of Earned Visibility (EV) as our approach to brand discoverability in a world of AI search.

Whilst this may sound self-promoting, it’s not (well not, really). The whole point of EV is that AI optimisation isn’t just simply the next generation of SEO.

Why? SEO as a discipline has often focused on tactics that are more likely to get results. This works when there is only really one major search tool, and they only make major algorithm updates a few times a year.

The dawn of AI search is a seismic shift. Consumer behaviour has fundamentally changed, with ChatGPT now seeing 5.8bn monthly site visits and AI search now used by half of all consumers.

But, and this is an important but, there is still no dominant tool, and each LLM has a different algorithm that will prioritise different sources.

Even if that wasn’t the case, the speed of evolution in the AI game is significantly faster than it was with search. Chat GPT launched their best model ever (5.1) in November, and then they launched their even shinier and better 5.2 barely one month later.

As tools evolve, how they make decisions – and the factors that shape which brands are included in the answer – will change.

The upshot of this? If you put all your eggs in the Reddit basket, you may see returns now, but you are also highly exposed to risk and could see an equally rapid negative impact from this as the models evolve. 

Right, so what should I do then?

The point of the Earned Visibility approach is to treat AI search tools as if they were a smart consumer – which is what they are effectively all striving to be.

Instead of focusing on one area, it’s important to consider your brand presence in the round. Don’t think “how can I game this AI tool” but instead ask “what are the factors that a consumer would look for” and layer this into your AI visibility approach. If you’re only considering one channel (or worse, one tactic) you’re missing the bigger picture.

Things like authoritative media coverage, credible third-party citations, genuine community discussion, high-quality content that demonstrates expertise, consistent brand signals across platforms, strong technical foundations, reviews and recommendations, and clear entity information in trusted data sources are all important.

Earned Visibility is the way forward

When it comes to deciding where to focus your efforts for AI visibility, you need to consider how you are performing when it comes to all of the above – and make your action plan on the back of this.

Want more? Sign up to our fortnightly AI brand discoverability email – three or four quick bullets about what’s going on in the space and one or two recommendations on what to do.

That, or drop [email protected] a line and ask me whatever you want directly.

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