June 29, 2026
The New Rules of Trust but Verify
That Solo Life Episode 345: The New Rules of Trust but Verify
Episode Summary
Every solo PR pro has heard the same directive for the past year: show up in AI search. Get cited by ChatGPT, Gemini, and the rest. But Karen and Michelle pose a different question: when AI mentions your client, does anyone actually believe what it says? New research says visibility and believability are two distinct jobs, and most practitioners have only been working on one. Karen walks through Burson's new Credibility Paradox report (with Profound), which analyzed roughly 55,000 believability forecasts across 85 companies and seven AI platforms. The headline finding: executive and leadership messaging is the least believable claim type across every industry studied, while third-party proof — product results, workplace recognition, and independent coverage — ranks highest. Karen and Michelle unpack why this is genuinely good news for solo practitioners, why it doesn't mean ditching executive thought leadership, and what to actually do about it starting Monday morning.
Episode Highlights
- [01:54] The Credibility Paradox: Visibility Is Necessary But Not Sufficient: Burson's new report, produced with Profound, ran roughly 55,000 believability forecasts across 85 companies on seven major AI platforms. The headline finding: simply being mentioned by an AI tool is not the win. The real work now is building enough evidence around a brand that the AI's answer is actually believable to the people who matter.
- [03:01] The Finding That Stops Practitioners in Their Tracks: Leadership Messaging Ranks Least Believable: Across every industry studied, executive and leadership claims scored as the least believable claim type. The highest-scoring claims were product results, innovation, workplace recognition, and other third-party signals, proof that comes from somewhere other than the brand's own mouth. Karen is careful to note the nuance: this does not mean executive thought leadership is worthless. It means leadership messaging is the lowest-leverage lever for believability when it isn't anchored to proof.
- [05:40] What This Looks Like on a Real Account: Karen walks through a practical example: a SaaS founder wants to be known as the most innovative platform in their category. An AI tool can repeat that claim, but a skeptical buyer will read it as marketing and discount it. Compare that to an independent review site ranking the same company, a trade outlet covering a customer's actual results, or a workplace award genuinely earned. Same underlying message, completely different believability. The shift isn't to stop telling the story. It's to get credible third parties to tell it alongside you.
- [07:37] The Good News: Earned Media Is Quantifiably the Most Believable Lever: A 2026 Stacker study found that distributed earned media drove a 239% lift in AI citations compared to owned content alone. Separately, Muck Rack's analysis of over 25 million links found earned media accounts for roughly 82–84% of all AI citations. For solo practitioners, this reframes years of fuzzy ROI conversations into one of the most quantified arguments for earned media ever, and it's a number a budget-holding client can understand immediately.
- [10:36] Why Solos Specifically Win Here: You Don't Need a Paid Media Budget: The believability lever that matters most - earned coverage and third-party proof - is exactly the lever solo practitioners are already built to pull without a paid media budget. Karen's framing is that you can't always outspend a big agency, but you can outearn them. AI didn't make solo practitioners obsolete. It handed them the receipts.
- [11:34] The Foolproofing: Buyers Still Verify Before They Trust: A third report, G2's Answer Economy study, surveyed over 1,000 B2B software buyers and found only 2% will buy from an AI-recommended brand without verifying it first, and 69% of those who verified ended up choosing a different vendor than originally planned. The conclusion: the AI conversation doesn't replace human trust, it feeds into it. The proof a practitioner builds is exactly what's waiting when a buyer goes to verify.
- [13:11] Judgment Is the Scarce Resource, Not Content: AI can draft a press release in nine seconds. It cannot tell a practitioner whether that's the right tactic for the right client at the right moment. Karen and Michelle make the case that experienced judgment, knowing which proof point actually moves believability for a specific client, in a specific industry, with a specific buyer, is the solo PR pro's defining advantage in the AI era. It is not something a tool can be prompted into replicating.
- [18:10] The Monday Morning Action: Ask AI What It Says About Your Client: Karen's first practical step is to ask an AI tool what it currently says about your client, then read the answer the way a skeptical buyer would. Is it leaning on the brand's own claims, or on verifiable third-party proof? The second step is take an hour that would normally go toward polishing executive voice and redirect it toward harvesting one piece of third-party proof, a review, a pitch, or an award worth pursuing.
Resources & Additional Information
- Burson: The Credibility Paradox (with Profound)
- Stacker: 2026 AI Citation Study
- Muck Rack: Earned Media & AI Citation Analysis
- G2: Answer Economy Study
- Solo PR Pro membership community: soloprpro.com
- That Solo Life podcast website: thatsololife.com
Host & Show Info
That Solo Life is a podcast created for public relations, communication, and marketing professionals who work as independent and small practitioners. Hosted by Karen Swim, APR, President of Solo PR Pro, and Michelle Kane, Principal of Voice Matters, the show delivers expert insights, encouragement, and practical advice for solo PR pros navigating today's dynamic professional landscape.
Listen to all episodes and catch up on previous conversations at thatsololife.com.
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That Solo Life Episode 345: The New Rules of Trust but Verify
Karen Swim, APR (00:04):
Here's a question that's kind of been nagging at me lately. For I guess about a year now we've all been told the same thing. You have to show up in AI search. It's all about the AAO, right?
Karen Swim, APR (00:21):
Have to make sure that ChatGPT and Gemini and all the rest are mentioning your client and that's true. That matters. But I keep circling to a different question. When the AI does mention your client, does anyone actually believe what it says?
Michelle Kane (00:42):
Yeah. Because showing up and being believed are two completely different things and we've really kind of been treating them as the same thing.
Karen Swim, APR (00:54):
Exactly. And there's brand new research. We love research on that solo life. That basically proves they're different. So today we're going to talk about what I think we're calling the believability layer. Ooh. Yeah. Right? The part of AI visibility that almost nobody is measuring yet. And honestly, it's why I think it might be the best news for solo PR pros all year.
Michelle Kane (01:26):
Absolutely. Strong promise. Let's earn it. I'm Michelle Kane.
Karen Swim, APR (01:31):
And I'm Karen Swim. This is That Solo Life, this show for solo and small shop PR and Communication Pros. Let's get into it.
Michelle Kane (01:51):
Okay. Set it up for me. What's the research?
Karen Swim, APR (01:54):
Okay. So the agency person just released a report and it's called the Credibility Paradox. And they partnered with this company called Profound and they ran thousands of reputation questions across seven major AI platforms. So we're talking something like 55,000 believability forecasts looking at 85 companies.
Michelle Kane (02:18):
That's a really serious sample. That's not a vibe. That's data, which we love. So what did they find that can help us?
Karen Swim, APR (02:27):
Well, here's the headline. Visibility and AI answers is in their words, necessary but not sufficient. So just being mentioned is not the win. The real job now is building enough evidence around a brand that the AI's answer is actually believable to the people who matter.
Michelle Kane (02:50):
Necessary but not sufficient. All right, I'm going to need that on a Post-it note, but it's so true because people can hear what you say, but where's the cred to back it up?
Karen Swim, APR (03:01):
I completely agree. But here's the part that kind of stopped me in the tracks. They looked at which kinds of claims people believe and which they don't. And the least believable claims across every single industry they studied were leadership and executive messaging.
Michelle Kane (03:25):
The least believable. I can kind of see that actually. Who's going to believe the boss, but that's a problem for us.
Karen Swim, APR (03:36):
It is a problem for us. And we'll dig into what they really mean and link to the study so people can see the nuance there, but it's across the board. And so the claims scored highest were things like product, innovation, workplace recognition, third party signals. And so the proof that comes from somewhere other than the brand's own mouth. And to me, this was all about facts. It's factual stuff.
Michelle Kane (04:06):
And that's really sobering. It's like a gut punch for us in our world because think about how much of our time goes into creating your executive voice, making sure it's believable, using the founder's LinkedIn, the CEO thought leadership piece, making sure you get the byline for your leader. And if we're not coming across as credible, that's something we have to solve for.
Karen Swim, APR (04:32):
Yeah. And I think for me, the keywords are executive messaging. So we know that that's different than actual though leadership,
Michelle Kane (04:43):
But
Karen Swim, APR (04:44):
The research is basically telling us that that's the part the audience trusts lease when an AI engine repeats it back to them.
Michelle Kane (04:54):
So we've been pouring all our energy and thought into something that's the lowest credibility asset in the stack.
Karen Swim, APR (05:06):
Yeah. It's a little bit humbly, but I wouldn't say that it's worthless. It's the lowest leverage thing you can do for believability. And so once you see that, I think it changes where smart solo PR Pro is going to spend their limited time.
Michelle Kane (05:24):
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. So what do we think? I think when people hear third party proof, it stays in the abstract. So let's dig into what this really looks like on the accounts that we're working on.
Karen Swim, APR (05:40):
Yeah. So okay, here's a good example or maybe an okay example. It's not brilliant. So it's not. It's not brilliant. But it's an example. You have a client that's a SaaS founder and you want to get them quoted everywhere, of course, because that's what you do. And of course that founder wants to be known as the most innovative platform in their category. Anybody who works with tech clients knows that this actually is pretty true. So that's an executive claim. The AI can absolutely repeat that, but the buyer is going to read it as marketing and discount it. But if you compare that to an independent review site ranking that SaaS client or a respected trade outlet that covers a customer's actual results or even a workplace award they genuinely earned.
Michelle Kane (06:44):
And you're getting the same underlying message that we're great.
Karen Swim, APR (06:50):
That's true. Same trust. True. But now that's the version that a buyer and the AI engine summarizing things for that buyer actually trusts. So it's not that you stop telling the story.
Michelle Kane (07:07):
No, you just get someone else to tell it with you. So you're moving your message from the brand's mouth to credible outside voices, which is really, again, one of the main pillars of what we do. And then your believability benefits from it. Good stuff.
Karen Swim, APR (07:23):
Yeah. That's the whole shift in one sentence.
Michelle Kane (07:28):
Love it. Love it. Okay. So this is where you promise it gets good for us. Why this is good news for solo PR pros.
Karen Swim, APR (07:37):
Yeah. So if the executive voice is the least believable, what's the most believable? That's the next question, right? It's earned media, independent coverage, reviews, recognition. And there's a second piece of research that quantifies just how powerful that is.
Michelle Kane (07:55):
Let's hear it.
Karen Swim, APR (07:57):
Okay. So there was a 2026 study from Stacker that found that distributed earned media drove a… drum roll… 239% lift in AI citations compared to owned content alone.
Michelle Kane (08:16):
I mean, that's not a rounding error. That's proof that our profession matters and what we do matters. And this is why you need us clients. Yes.
Karen Swim, APR (08:24):
That's fantastic. And then separately, MuckRack analyzed over 25 million links and they found earned media accounts for somewhere around 82 to 84% of all AI citations.
Michelle Kane (08:39):
So what we've kind of been talking about all along, even though we've been saying, yes, you have to show up in AI search, the overwhelming majority of what AI is pulling from in credits is indeed earned. It's the stuff we make our living on and it's what we've been telling our clients truly matters, even though they're like, "Just churn it out in AI." It's like, no, no, no, no, no. It's deeper than that. It's never so simple. Love it.
Karen Swim, APR (09:08):
And that's why I keep calling this good news. A 239% lift is a number that a C-suite executive is going to understand. So for years we've struggled to put this nice, neat number on the ROI of PR and this is one of the most quantified arguments for earned media that's ever existed and you can walk into a budget conversation with that.
Michelle Kane (09:34):
Oh, totally. And that helps to reframe the conversation that we solos usually dread the client who's like, "Remind me what I'm paying you for. " But now we have solid research. It's like we're not selling impressions or vibes or eyeballs because I've sat in meetings where clients have gone, "Well, what does that mean?" And sometimes you're left a little lacking of like, "We hope they act on it. " But now this allows us to give the precise signal that the AI economy is rewarding the most when buyers, when they're going looking, AI is like, "Here, here's actual earned real information for you, not just fluff that we churn out. " This is awesome.
Karen Swim, APR (10:27):
Yeah. This thing that used to feel kind of fuzzy earned coverage is now the thing with an actual number attached.
Michelle Kane (10:36):
And the best part of all this is we don't need a paid media budget to play. A solo pro, us, we're a department of one. We can absolutely get that earned coverage and build up all of that great third party proof. You can't always outspend the big agency, but you can outearn them, which is a beautiful thing.
Karen Swim, APR (10:58):
That's the whole thing. And the exact lever that most believability the most is the lever we are already built to pull. So AI didn't make us obsolete here. If anything, it just handed us the receipts.
Michelle Kane (11:12):
I love it. I love it. All right. But because I'm always, as I say, the little black cloud, let's foolproof this because I can hear a listener thinking, "Great, so AI just rewards earned media. I'll let the robots sort it out. " We don't want to do that, do we? No.
Karen Swim, APR (11:34):
And so the data says, "Eh, not so fast." There's a third report. And by the way, we're going to link to all these reports because my memory, my notes may not be serving up the exact numbers correctly. So we'll always have the link so that you can read them. But there's this third report from G2 and it's their answer economy study. And so they surveyed over a thousand B2B software buyers and there's this staff that says only 2% will buy from an AI recommended brand without verifying it first.
Michelle Kane (12:11):
That's a great data point. I mean, think about it, 98 out of 100 people go and check.
Karen Swim, APR (12:17):
Yeah. And 69% of them said they actually chose a different vendor than they had planned based on what they found when they checked. I think these are also little PR pros because you know us. Exactly. We are not going to take one piece of information. Bottom line, the AI conversation doesn't replace human trust. It leads into it or feeds into it. So the buyer hears something from AI, but then they go hunting for proof.
Michelle Kane (12:47):
And that's perfect. And that's an essential part of what we do. We're building that verification layer of, here's why you can trust us, here are proof points. And it's what's sitting there waiting when they do go to confirm. And good for these responders to this study. You're not just believing the so- called AI slot that's being fed to you. Good deal.
Karen Swim, APR (13:11):
That's it. Exactly. And so I want our listeners to really sit with this. AI, it's getting better and better at producing content, fast, cheap, endless. It's the thing that becomes scarce and it's not projection. It's judgment, knowing which proof point actually moves believability for your client in this industry, in whatever industry you're serving with this particular buyer.
So an AI tool can draft a press release in nine seconds, but it can't tell you whether that particular tool is the right tactic at the right time. So throughout this whole conversation, you may have sounded like we're like, "Push that our media lever and push it only." But no, nothing ever divorces us from strategy and from our expertise. And again, solo PR pro superpower, that's what we do.
Michelle Kane (14:11):
Exactly. That's where our seasoned experience, that's where the experienced practitioner, us, that's where that comes in, right? The sharper, your interpretation of what's really credible above what's noise is what is really going to make those results happen. And I think we've been seeding this across the opinions on AI, humanity still needed to discern.
Karen Swim, APR (14:44):
Yeah. I mean, here's the thing, it's so situational because something that is pure gold in one industry is noise in another. And so a tool does not know your industry's reputation map. It doesn't know the particular outlet that carries weight with your client's buyer and the ones that don't. You know that and that's not something that you can prompt your way to. It truly is earned.
Michelle Kane (15:14):
Right. And that's the total opposite of what we're being sold with AI, right? That AI makes experience obsolete. It couldn't be further from the truth. And I do feel for young practitioners coming up, I need to get that up, that's another episode for another day, but your experience matters.
Karen Swim, APR (15:35):
It does. And believability, economy, judgment is the moat and experience is the advantage, not the liability.
Michelle Kane (15:45):
Well, of course we have to be honest with the follow-up. How do we actually decide? You're staring at a client and 10 possible proof points, right? Pick one, pick two.
Karen Swim, APR (15:57):
Yeah. I mean, that's a real work, right? It's genuinely hard to do that alone because half the time you do want to gut check it with somebody before you go spend a client's time and money. Is this particular piece of content or this particular tactic the right one? Is this the right outlet? Those aren't the questions that you can safely ask out loud in public.
Michelle Kane (16:24):
No, no, not without exposing the client or yourself or ...
Karen Swim, APR (16:28):
Yeah. I mean, here's a little plug, full transparency. It's exactly why we have a solo PR pro membership community because it is that room where you can ask these types of questions and get honest answers from people who've made that call before. And we have a little short handout on this for our members and we'll be talking about this and discussing it more in our private community.
But I do think it's important just to emphasize that these are times that we are learning as we go along. Everyone is. Everyone started at the same point here. Things are shifting so fast, but I think you do need to rely on your judgment and don't be afraid to talk with colleagues that work like you do and have an understanding and just check things because somebody may be further along in how they've worked at this than you are and you can learn from them.
Michelle Kane (17:34):
Yeah. And we know the majority of comms pros are more than happy to lend a hand. I'm sure we can all count on at least one hand if you trusted people. I mean, gosh, I have even a graphic designer friend. We'll text each other like, "Gut check me on this. " And the community is out there for sure. So let's bring this home. Somebody, our listeners are on their Monday walk right now listening to this episode. What should they do when they get back to their office, Karen?
Karen Swim, APR (18:10):
I mean, I think one easy thing to do first is to go and ask an AI tool what it says about your client right now. We could go on about why that's really important. And then you want to read the answers that come back just like a skeptical buyer would. And I think again, solo PR Pros, this is natural for us. Ask yourself, would they believe this? Where is it leaning on the brand's own claims versus real verifiable third party proof?
Michelle Kane (18:48):
And it's the new version of Google yourself, right? And that's something we can all do in 10, 15 minutes and freak us out a little, but that's a good thing usually. It means it's a good change that we need to be made and further proof of how necessary we are.
Karen Swim, APR (19:05):
I mean, but it rattles us in a useful way, right? So then I think the next- Yeah, totally. Yeah. Next step you can take is take an hour, maybe less, an hour that you would normally spend polishing the executives of voice and redirect it to harvest one piece of third party proof, chase a review, send one pitch, find one recognition that's worth going after.
Michelle Kane (19:33):
That's fabulous. And taking that hour of time that you might spend on the least believable asset and invest it in the most believable one, that's
Karen Swim, APR (19:46):
Gold. That's a whole episode in a single move. How about that?
Michelle Kane (19:52):
Love it. I love it. I love this episode. I love this thoughts. It's another one that we inspire ourselves, but it doesn't end in doom. It ends with us being even more relevant, which we knew at a base gut level, but now we have, as you said earlier, we got receipts.
Karen Swim, APR (20:09):
Yeah. And I mean, the thread that we keep pulling on this show is that the tools do change constantly, but judgment does not go out of style.
Michelle Kane (20:20):
No, no. So here's our question for you this week, listeners, and we genuinely want your answer. So hit us up at soloprpro.com or in the comments wherever you're hearing or viewing this. Have you actually checked what AI says about your clients lately? And would your buyers believe it? Tell us it's okay. If we giggle. We're going to giggle amongst ourselves. We're not laughing at you, we're laughing with you because we're all there.
Karen Swim, APR (20:48):
Absolutely. So drop it in the comments or come talk with us inside Solo PR Pro. That Solo Life is a product of the Solo PR Pro community where solo and small PR shop pros get the private safe space to ask the questions that you can't ask out in public.
Michelle Kane (21:07):
And it's one of the very best places ever. Thanks for spending time with us. I'm Michelle Kane.
Karen Swim, APR (21:13):
And I'm Karen Swim and we'll see you next time on that Solo Life.
Karen Swim, APR (00:04):
Here's a question that's kind of been nagging at me lately. For I guess about a year now we've all been told the same thing. You have to show up in AI search. It's all about the AAO, right?
Karen Swim, APR (00:21):
Have to make sure that ChatGPT and Gemini and all the rest are mentioning your client and that's true. That matters. But I keep circling to a different question. When the AI does mention your client, does anyone actually believe what it says?
Michelle Kane (00:42):
Yeah. Because showing up and being believed are two completely different things and we've really kind of been treating them as the same thing.
Karen Swim, APR (00:54):
Exactly. And there's brand new research. We love research on that solo life. That basically proves they're different. So today we're going to talk about what I think we're calling the believability layer. Ooh. Yeah. Right? The part of AI visibility that almost nobody is measuring yet. And honestly, it's why I think it might be the best news for solo PR pros all year.
Michelle Kane (01:26):
Absolutely. Strong promise. Let's earn it. I'm Michelle Kane.
Karen Swim, APR (01:31):
And I'm Karen Swim. This is That Solo Life, this show for solo and small shop PR and Communication Pros. Let's get into it.
Michelle Kane (01:51):
Okay. Set it up for me. What's the research?
Karen Swim, APR (01:54):
Okay. So the agency person just released a report and it's called the Credibility Paradox. And they partnered with this company called Profound and they ran thousands of reputation questions across seven major AI platforms. So we're talking something like 55,000 believability forecasts looking at 85 companies.
Michelle Kane (02:18):
That's a really serious sample. That's not a vibe. That's data, which we love. So what did they find that can help us?
Karen Swim, APR (02:27):
Well, here's the headline. Visibility and AI answers is in their words, necessary but not sufficient. So just being mentioned is not the win. The real job now is building enough evidence around a brand that the AI's answer is actually believable to the people who matter.
Michelle Kane (02:50):
Necessary but not sufficient. All right, I'm going to need that on a Post-it note, but it's so true because people can hear what you say, but where's the cred to back it up?
Karen Swim, APR (03:01):
I completely agree. But here's the part that kind of stopped me in the tracks. They looked at which kinds of claims people believe and which they don't. And the least believable claims across every single industry they studied were leadership and executive messaging.
Michelle Kane (03:25):
The least believable. I can kind of see that actually. Who's going to believe the boss, but that's a problem for us.
Karen Swim, APR (03:36):
It is a problem for us. And we'll dig into what they really mean and link to the study so people can see the nuance there, but it's across the board. And so the claims scored highest were things like product, innovation, workplace recognition, third party signals. And so the proof that comes from somewhere other than the brand's own mouth. And to me, this was all about facts. It's factual stuff.
Michelle Kane (04:06):
And that's really sobering. It's like a gut punch for us in our world because think about how much of our time goes into creating your executive voice, making sure it's believable, using the founder's LinkedIn, the CEO thought leadership piece, making sure you get the byline for your leader. And if we're not coming across as credible, that's something we have to solve for.
Karen Swim, APR (04:32):
Yeah. And I think for me, the keywords are executive messaging. So we know that that's different than actual though leadership,
Michelle Kane (04:43):
But
Karen Swim, APR (04:44):
The research is basically telling us that that's the part the audience trusts lease when an AI engine repeats it back to them.
Michelle Kane (04:54):
So we've been pouring all our energy and thought into something that's the lowest credibility asset in the stack.
Karen Swim, APR (05:06):
Yeah. It's a little bit humbly, but I wouldn't say that it's worthless. It's the lowest leverage thing you can do for believability. And so once you see that, I think it changes where smart solo PR Pro is going to spend their limited time.
Michelle Kane (05:24):
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. So what do we think? I think when people hear third party proof, it stays in the abstract. So let's dig into what this really looks like on the accounts that we're working on.
Karen Swim, APR (05:40):
Yeah. So okay, here's a good example or maybe an okay example. It's not brilliant. So it's not. It's not brilliant. But it's an example. You have a client that's a SaaS founder and you want to get them quoted everywhere, of course, because that's what you do. And of course that founder wants to be known as the most innovative platform in their category. Anybody who works with tech clients knows that this actually is pretty true. So that's an executive claim. The AI can absolutely repeat that, but the buyer is going to read it as marketing and discount it. But if you compare that to an independent review site ranking that SaaS client or a respected trade outlet that covers a customer's actual results or even a workplace award they genuinely earned.
Michelle Kane (06:44):
And you're getting the same underlying message that we're great.
Karen Swim, APR (06:50):
That's true. Same trust. True. But now that's the version that a buyer and the AI engine summarizing things for that buyer actually trusts. So it's not that you stop telling the story.
Michelle Kane (07:07):
No, you just get someone else to tell it with you. So you're moving your message from the brand's mouth to credible outside voices, which is really, again, one of the main pillars of what we do. And then your believability benefits from it. Good stuff.
Karen Swim, APR (07:23):
Yeah. That's the whole shift in one sentence.
Michelle Kane (07:28):
Love it. Love it. Okay. So this is where you promise it gets good for us. Why this is good news for solo PR pros.
Karen Swim, APR (07:37):
Yeah. So if the executive voice is the least believable, what's the most believable? That's the next question, right? It's earned media, independent coverage, reviews, recognition. And there's a second piece of research that quantifies just how powerful that is.
Michelle Kane (07:55):
Let's hear it.
Karen Swim, APR (07:57):
Okay. So there was a 2026 study from Stacker that found that distributed earned media drove a… drum roll… 239% lift in AI citations compared to owned content alone.
Michelle Kane (08:16):
I mean, that's not a rounding error. That's proof that our profession matters and what we do matters. And this is why you need us clients. Yes.
Karen Swim, APR (08:24):
That's fantastic. And then separately, MuckRack analyzed over 25 million links and they found earned media accounts for somewhere around 82 to 84% of all AI citations.
Michelle Kane (08:39):
So what we've kind of been talking about all along, even though we've been saying, yes, you have to show up in AI search, the overwhelming majority of what AI is pulling from in credits is indeed earned. It's the stuff we make our living on and it's what we've been telling our clients truly matters, even though they're like, "Just churn it out in AI." It's like, no, no, no, no, no. It's deeper than that. It's never so simple. Love it.
Karen Swim, APR (09:08):
And that's why I keep calling this good news. A 239% lift is a number that a C-suite executive is going to understand. So for years we've struggled to put this nice, neat number on the ROI of PR and this is one of the most quantified arguments for earned media that's ever existed and you can walk into a budget conversation with that.
Michelle Kane (09:34):
Oh, totally. And that helps to reframe the conversation that we solos usually dread the client who's like, "Remind me what I'm paying you for. " But now we have solid research. It's like we're not selling impressions or vibes or eyeballs because I've sat in meetings where clients have gone, "Well, what does that mean?" And sometimes you're left a little lacking of like, "We hope they act on it. " But now this allows us to give the precise signal that the AI economy is rewarding the most when buyers, when they're going looking, AI is like, "Here, here's actual earned real information for you, not just fluff that we churn out. " This is awesome.
Karen Swim, APR (10:27):
Yeah. This thing that used to feel kind of fuzzy earned coverage is now the thing with an actual number attached.
Michelle Kane (10:36):
And the best part of all this is we don't need a paid media budget to play. A solo pro, us, we're a department of one. We can absolutely get that earned coverage and build up all of that great third party proof. You can't always outspend the big agency, but you can outearn them, which is a beautiful thing.
Karen Swim, APR (10:58):
That's the whole thing. And the exact lever that most believability the most is the lever we are already built to pull. So AI didn't make us obsolete here. If anything, it just handed us the receipts.
Michelle Kane (11:12):
I love it. I love it. All right. But because I'm always, as I say, the little black cloud, let's foolproof this because I can hear a listener thinking, "Great, so AI just rewards earned media. I'll let the robots sort it out. " We don't want to do that, do we? No.
Karen Swim, APR (11:34):
And so the data says, "Eh, not so fast." There's a third report. And by the way, we're going to link to all these reports because my memory, my notes may not be serving up the exact numbers correctly. So we'll always have the link so that you can read them. But there's this third report from G2 and it's their answer economy study. And so they surveyed over a thousand B2B software buyers and there's this staff that says only 2% will buy from an AI recommended brand without verifying it first.
Michelle Kane (12:11):
That's a great data point. I mean, think about it, 98 out of 100 people go and check.
Karen Swim, APR (12:17):
Yeah. And 69% of them said they actually chose a different vendor than they had planned based on what they found when they checked. I think these are also little PR pros because you know us. Exactly. We are not going to take one piece of information. Bottom line, the AI conversation doesn't replace human trust. It leads into it or feeds into it. So the buyer hears something from AI, but then they go hunting for proof.
Michelle Kane (12:47):
And that's perfect. And that's an essential part of what we do. We're building that verification layer of, here's why you can trust us, here are proof points. And it's what's sitting there waiting when they do go to confirm. And good for these responders to this study. You're not just believing the so- called AI slot that's being fed to you. Good deal.
Karen Swim, APR (13:11):
That's it. Exactly. And so I want our listeners to really sit with this. AI, it's getting better and better at producing content, fast, cheap, endless. It's the thing that becomes scarce and it's not projection. It's judgment, knowing which proof point actually moves believability for your client in this industry, in whatever industry you're serving with this particular buyer.
So an AI tool can draft a press release in nine seconds, but it can't tell you whether that particular tool is the right tactic at the right time. So throughout this whole conversation, you may have sounded like we're like, "Push that our media lever and push it only." But no, nothing ever divorces us from strategy and from our expertise. And again, solo PR pro superpower, that's what we do.
Michelle Kane (14:11):
Exactly. That's where our seasoned experience, that's where the experienced practitioner, us, that's where that comes in, right? The sharper, your interpretation of what's really credible above what's noise is what is really going to make those results happen. And I think we've been seeding this across the opinions on AI, humanity still needed to discern.
Karen Swim, APR (14:44):
Yeah. I mean, here's the thing, it's so situational because something that is pure gold in one industry is noise in another. And so a tool does not know your industry's reputation map. It doesn't know the particular outlet that carries weight with your client's buyer and the ones that don't. You know that and that's not something that you can prompt your way to. It truly is earned.
Michelle Kane (15:14):
Right. And that's the total opposite of what we're being sold with AI, right? That AI makes experience obsolete. It couldn't be further from the truth. And I do feel for young practitioners coming up, I need to get that up, that's another episode for another day, but your experience matters.
Karen Swim, APR (15:35):
It does. And believability, economy, judgment is the moat and experience is the advantage, not the liability.
Michelle Kane (15:45):
Well, of course we have to be honest with the follow-up. How do we actually decide? You're staring at a client and 10 possible proof points, right? Pick one, pick two.
Karen Swim, APR (15:57):
Yeah. I mean, that's a real work, right? It's genuinely hard to do that alone because half the time you do want to gut check it with somebody before you go spend a client's time and money. Is this particular piece of content or this particular tactic the right one? Is this the right outlet? Those aren't the questions that you can safely ask out loud in public.
Michelle Kane (16:24):
No, no, not without exposing the client or yourself or ...
Karen Swim, APR (16:28):
Yeah. I mean, here's a little plug, full transparency. It's exactly why we have a solo PR pro membership community because it is that room where you can ask these types of questions and get honest answers from people who've made that call before. And we have a little short handout on this for our members and we'll be talking about this and discussing it more in our private community.
But I do think it's important just to emphasize that these are times that we are learning as we go along. Everyone is. Everyone started at the same point here. Things are shifting so fast, but I think you do need to rely on your judgment and don't be afraid to talk with colleagues that work like you do and have an understanding and just check things because somebody may be further along in how they've worked at this than you are and you can learn from them.
Michelle Kane (17:34):
Yeah. And we know the majority of comms pros are more than happy to lend a hand. I'm sure we can all count on at least one hand if you trusted people. I mean, gosh, I have even a graphic designer friend. We'll text each other like, "Gut check me on this. " And the community is out there for sure. So let's bring this home. Somebody, our listeners are on their Monday walk right now listening to this episode. What should they do when they get back to their office, Karen?
Karen Swim, APR (18:10):
I mean, I think one easy thing to do first is to go and ask an AI tool what it says about your client right now. We could go on about why that's really important. And then you want to read the answers that come back just like a skeptical buyer would. And I think again, solo PR Pros, this is natural for us. Ask yourself, would they believe this? Where is it leaning on the brand's own claims versus real verifiable third party proof?
Michelle Kane (18:48):
And it's the new version of Google yourself, right? And that's something we can all do in 10, 15 minutes and freak us out a little, but that's a good thing usually. It means it's a good change that we need to be made and further proof of how necessary we are.
Karen Swim, APR (19:05):
I mean, but it rattles us in a useful way, right? So then I think the next- Yeah, totally. Yeah. Next step you can take is take an hour, maybe less, an hour that you would normally spend polishing the executives of voice and redirect it to harvest one piece of third party proof, chase a review, send one pitch, find one recognition that's worth going after.
Michelle Kane (19:33):
That's fabulous. And taking that hour of time that you might spend on the least believable asset and invest it in the most believable one, that's
Karen Swim, APR (19:46):
Gold. That's a whole episode in a single move. How about that?
Michelle Kane (19:52):
Love it. I love it. I love this episode. I love this thoughts. It's another one that we inspire ourselves, but it doesn't end in doom. It ends with us being even more relevant, which we knew at a base gut level, but now we have, as you said earlier, we got receipts.
Karen Swim, APR (20:09):
Yeah. And I mean, the thread that we keep pulling on this show is that the tools do change constantly, but judgment does not go out of style.
Michelle Kane (20:20):
No, no. So here's our question for you this week, listeners, and we genuinely want your answer. So hit us up at soloprpro.com or in the comments wherever you're hearing or viewing this. Have you actually checked what AI says about your clients lately? And would your buyers believe it? Tell us it's okay. If we giggle. We're going to giggle amongst ourselves. We're not laughing at you, we're laughing with you because we're all there.
Karen Swim, APR (20:48):
Absolutely. So drop it in the comments or come talk with us inside Solo PR Pro. That Solo Life is a product of the Solo PR Pro community where solo and small PR shop pros get the private safe space to ask the questions that you can't ask out in public.
Michelle Kane (21:07):
And it's one of the very best places ever. Thanks for spending time with us. I'm Michelle Kane.
Karen Swim, APR (21:13):
And I'm Karen Swim and we'll see you next time on that Solo Life.