Earned media and B2B PR could eclipse SEO and LinkedIn in the age of “botshit” AI

AI can't distinguish truth from from falsehoods - so it has a propensity to bullshit - image by Eric Krull - Uplash

Are you starting to think LinkedIn is little more than an endless stream of B2B ads punctuated with a little human interest?

What will it be like when AI start’s pumping in automated content at volume?

There’s a very interesting piece in Performance Marketing World exploring the importance of earned media in the AI age making the point that marketers are confusing the credibility of owned channels with earned ones. They do very different jobs.

And, it got us thinking about what AI means for B2B PR agencies like Simpatico PR beyond helping us automate some operations.

Google goes big on AI-search

News that Google is accelerating its role out of Gemini artificial intelligence-powered search and AI assistance, focused our minds. It’s a move that has big implications for B2B marketing and in particular B2B PR.

Google’s decision to commit to AI-search is designed to combat falling search volumes (disputed by Google) and rival AI assistant tech such as ChatGPT, Claude etc. suggests we’re approaching a tipping point in the way we look for information and the form in which we receive it.

Some are calling a Kodak moment for Google, which is now offering a range of AI subscriptions from basic up to advanced which points to a scenario where its vast annual search revenues are at least partly replaced by subscribers who are prepared to share ever deeper data about themselves in order to benefit from an increasingly automated lifestyle and enhanced work capability.

The robots are seeking quality and authority

What does this mean for B2B marketing and B2B PR? SEO has been a core investment priority for most businesses over the last two decades. But as we start to use AI in earnest, the sponsored list-based delivery of sources and services is beginning to look basic and not fit for purpose.

This is particularly the case for major B2B investments. Buying services from a B2B PR agency, CRM or commerce SaaS, a CDP or retail media tech provider, an advertising, branding or media agency etc. is not the same as searching for a plumber in your local area.

Nor is searching for insight into trends affecting technology, marketing, the law, healthcare, education or any professional sphere. Especially when AI offers the opportunity to ask and get answers to very specific questions.

From quantity to quality b2b marketing?

This means we can expect to see a market correction in the SEO space as users switch to AI assistants. And a growing realisation amongst B2B marketers that in order to feed LLMs, they need PR.

Earned media i.e. editorial achieved in business publications and other relevant channels such as podcasts, TV and radio, won't completely eclipse SEO in the AI age, but it will become a more central component of how visibility and authority are built. In fact, the two are becoming increasingly intertwined.

Here's a breakdown of how this plays out:

AI prioritises trust and authority

AI search models rely heavily on content from trusted, high-authority sources – typically editorial articles and published academic journals as well as research papers are the primary sources, not business-owned content from corporate websites etc. Unlike traditional SEO tactics, earned media carries inherent credibility, which AI models weigh heavily in determining what to surface.

Earned media is more indexable and influential

Press coverage, thought leadership articles, and interviews are all crawled and ranked by AI systems. These earned mentions signal to search and AI algorithms that a business or brand is credible and relevant, influencing both search ranking and AI-generated responses.

Less reliance on keyword matching

AI search is contextual and semantic, meaning it understands intent and meaning, not just exact keyword matches. That weakens the effectiveness of some traditional SEO tactics and increases the value of rich, natural, third-party content that earned media provides.

Citation-based discovery

AI-generated answers often cite sources. Being cited in third-party publications gives you a better chance of being included in AI summaries than simply ranking in traditional search results.

For businesses a B2B PR agency helps get your brand covered by reputable media, which boosts domain authority and increases chances of being featured in AI-generated results.

Structured PR equals better AI understanding

Clear and consistently used brand messaging language integrated into all articles and out-puts, help AI systems understand your company and generate accurate summaries. A defined and planned B2B PR strategy ensures that your messaging is consistent and accessible to AI crawlers and natural language models.

SEO still matters but its role may be more limited

Earned media alone won’t capture all intent and aspects of interest and arguably for the time being at least list-based SEO will dominate for everyday products and services, especially location-based ones.

AI will also inevitably pull information from owned websites, but it may be the way these are designed and optimised will need to change to cope with AI.

It’s also true that AI will require the consistent presence of information. This makes owned channels important as they provide stable visibility. Earned media is ultimately under the control of publishers who will likely have different ways of storing and curating articles which may down-grade accessibility to articles overtime or remove them altogether.

Publishers are already fighting to restrict access to AIs and some are taking legal action against them. But an awful lot of publishers are signing deals to allow AI access.

A beacon of quality amidst a sea of AI dross?

Owned channels will likely remain a foundation upon which businesses should build digital content reach and marketing strategy. But they are only as good as the content and design deployed.

There’s a growing argument that as AI increases businesses’ ability to create content volume e.g. autogenerated articles, videos, social posts, AI’s potential to churn out “botshit” (automated bullshit) will come to the fore.

In that case, PR will act as a life belt enabling a B2B brand to protect or enhance its reputation in a crowded, noisy space full of vanilla B2B marketing.

Indeed, the use of B2B PR may become a competitive imperative in the AI age.

Find out more about our B2B PR agency approach to thought leadership and B2B marketing at www.simpaticopr.co.uk .