AI is demonstrating the power of PR, as new ways of searching shine the spotlight on reputation.
Liberty PR director and co-owner Lisa Jolly explains why media relations should be a core element of your public relations strategy.
AI is changing the way people search online. And if media relations isn’t part of your PR strategy, you’re missing opportunities to be found.
Cast your mind back to 2017 and PR Week published a comment piece titled: ‘Breaking news: Media relations is dead’. It was an easy story to believe, while social media seemed to be the silver bullet. You could control the content, pay to promote it and even buy an audience. Add in a few blog posts, an occasional press release and there, it seemed, was the future of PR.
That’s not a strategy we ever endorsed, but it’s one we’ve heard referenced many times. At Liberty PR, we continued to secure earned media coverage for our clients, building trust in their brands through the third-party endorsement of a journalist and editor.
Now the creators of the Large Language Models (LLMs) behind AI searches seem to agree. Coverage from a well-respected news source has more value than social media or paid content.
Earned media results feature strongly in AI searches across Google and Bing, along with information sourced from AI assistants like Chat GPT, Gemini and Claude. They draw news stories from key media outlets because they are established, trusted and objective. That could be national media, local or regional outlets, or top trade titles, depending on your target audience.
Research published by MuckRack, titled ‘What is AI reading?’, found that non-paid media results feature most in discovery searches, where people ask for opinions or recommendations. Journalistic content was the largest single referral source in the study for searches about recent events or trends.
If your brand isn’t appearing in relevant media outlets, you’re less likely to be found through AI. A negative presence will highlight your brand for the wrong reasons. Reputation sits front and centre in AI search so a proactive, long-term approach is more important than ever to build trust and support sales.
So, how do you find your way into the news?
If you don’t have capabilities in-house, a trusted partner is your best route to success.
The right agency will guide you to:
- Identify key media outlets that are relevant to your target audience
- Agree core messages that reflect your brand value
- Create news content that encapsulates your message and answers the questions people ask when searching
- Place your messages in the media outlets that matter
Only credible news outlets will perform well in AI search, whether that’s GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) or AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation). So there’s no room for marketing copy or sales-focused stories.
Real news should be:
- Informative
- Interesting – genuinely
- (and crucially) New
Media relations is a discipline which has become more difficult to master, with newsroom redundancies limiting opportunities to engage with journalists. But for those of us who stayed faithful to the practice, understanding the potency of a positive news story and the need to manage reputation, our expertise is considerable and our relationships with journalists are strong and current.
Media relations is back – though for the team at Liberty PR, it never went away. It’s one element of a wider public relations strategy, but one that you cannot afford to ignore.
To find out how Liberty PR can support, or for an appraisal of how media relations could enhance your brand’s reputation, email hello@libertypr.co.uk.
