Your executive reputation matters. A CEO’s reputation accounts for nearly half of a company’s overall reputation, and if you don’t know what’s being said about you online, you’re already behind and it could be impacting your bottom line.
AI is summarizing your reputation in just a few sentences, and those sentences are shaping what clients, potential clients, investors and employees think about you.
The first step in owning your reputation is understanding what people are seeing and AI is saying about you. If the narrative isn’t what you want, it’s time to invest in strategies to change it.
Auditing the major AI search engines will give you a baseline of where you’re at and where you can go.
Media Minefield Auditing Process
Media Minefield uses a proprietary process for auditing an executive’s reputation across the three most used AI search engines (currently): ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. Here’s what we look for:
- Key messages: Are the key messages coming through in AI-generated answers the most important to you currently? Do they feel authentic and relevant to your business goals?
- Executive voice: How are you showing up? Do people see you as authentic, experienced, informative, direct? How is AI interpreting your voice?
- Current visibility and sources cited: Where are you showing up? Is AI pulling from earned media articles, your company website, your social media?
- Opportunities: Once you figure out where you are showing up, it’s time to figure out where you’re not and what opportunities you have to increase your presence.
The results from all three engines are compiled into one report and graded. The more alignment and consistency, the higher the grade.
How To Do It Yourself
If you haven’t done an audit of yourself, what are you waiting for? If you have a consistent strategy to shape your reputation, audits should be done quarterly to see what new information is being cited, and if any of the steps you’re taking to shape your reputation are working.
To get the best results, you need to:
- Check across a variety of platforms
- Ask multiple questions in multiple ways
- Understand what people are asking about you and what they want to learn
One of the biggest red flags for AI is inconsistencies. For example, if your title is not the same on LinkedIn as it is on the company website, AI will flag you as not being reputable.
The prompts and questions you are asking AI platforms will guide results. It’s hard to ask unbiased questions about yourself. The same is true for someone in your company searching; bias may creep in. Audits can be manipulated if you’re looking for a specific outcome, which is why it can be beneficial for a third-party partner to step in.
What To Do Next
If there are places you aren’t showing up, pinpoint where they are and come up with a plan. 99% of what AI is citing is non-paid content, meaning you can quickly move the needle by creating a strategy to address where you have more opportunity to stand out, such as earned media interviews, published thought leadership articles and strategic social media content.
Even if you like what AI is surfacing, you still need to take action. More than half of AI’s journalism citations were published in the past 12 months, meaning your earned media strategy must be ongoing.
AI is constantly changing, and what it cites most today won’t necessarily be the same as what it cites in six months. Your strategy needs to shift accordingly. Ensure you find a team that is nimble and ready to change the strategy as AI changes.
Your executive reputation matters, and if it’s being shaped by someone or something else, it’s no longer your own. Take the time to audit what’s being said and create a strategy to make sure it’s reflective of your expertise and aligned with your business goals.
Key Takeaways:
- Media Minefield’s AI audit looks at key messages, executive voice, current visibility and opportunities
- If you audit your reputation yourself, look at multiple platforms, ask a lot of questions and understand what people are asking about you
- If you don’t like what you see, come up with a strategy to find places where you can become more visible, and be ready to shift that strategy as AI search changes