Digital PR for AI

This skill earns the off-site corroboration that AI answers run on. The large majority of AI citations come from third-party, earned sources rather than a brand's own site, and engines trust facts that appear consistently across many independent sources — "semantic consensus." Moving a story from one placement to several can multiply citation likelihood. This skill builds that distributed presence on purpose. It works for any business, B2B or B2C.

When to use this skill

• A brand's own content is strong but it still is not cited by AI.
• Building earned coverage, mentions, and corroboration for AEO.
• Turning original data into press and references.
• Establishing the consistent, multi-source narrative engines reward.

Before you start

Read aeo-foundation.md for the brand's positioning, the associations you want engines to make, proof assets (especially original data), and the prompts/competitors. If it is missing, point to the aeo-foundation skill.

Principles

• Consensus over a single hit. The goal is the same true narrative repeated across many trusted, independent sources, not one big placement. Breadth of corroboration is the signal.
• Earned beats owned. Independent third-party validation outweighs anything you publish about yourself.
• Data earns links and mentions. Original research and surprising statistics are the most reliable way to get covered — and to get cited as the source.
• Align the message. Decide the associations and facts you want repeated, and make it easy for every source to state them consistently.
• Unlinked mentions still count. Being named in trusted content matters for AI even without a hyperlink — pursue mentions, not just backlinks.

Workflow

1. Define the target narrative. From the foundation, fix the few associations and facts you want engines to repeat about the brand.
2. Map the trusted sources. Identify the publications, analysts, newsletters, and industry sites engines already cite for your prompts (use competitor-ai-analysis).
3. Build assets worth covering. Original data studies, benchmarks, surveys, strong expert commentary, and distinctive points of view — the things journalists and analysts cite.
4. Pitch and place. Earn coverage and contributed/expert placements in the mapped sources; pursue analyst inclusion where relevant.
5. Pursue consistent representation. Supply correct facts so every placement states the brand consistently; correct misrepresentations.
6. Reinforce across surfaces. Coordinate with comparison-content (independent lists), community-and-reviews (forums, review platforms), and entity-optimization (notability for knowledge bases).
7. Measure. Track mentions, corroborating-source count, and resulting citation shifts (see ai-visibility-tracking).

Output format

• The target narrative — the facts/associations to propagate.
• A source map — prioritized publications/analysts/sites to earn presence in.
• Coverage-worthy asset ideas (data studies, angles) tied to the narrative.
• A placement plan with priorities and the gap at each source.
• (assumption) tags where source influence was inferred.

Common pitfalls

• One big placement and done — consensus needs repetition across sources.
• Pitching with nothing newsworthy; without data or a real angle, coverage stalls.
• Inconsistent messaging, so sources describe the brand differently and dilute consensus.
• Counting only backlinks and ignoring valuable unlinked mentions.
• Chasing irrelevant high-authority sites engines do not cite for your category.

Related Skills

• evidence-and-citations — the original data that earns coverage.
• comparison-content — independent "best of"/alternatives placements.
• community-and-reviews — forum and review-platform corroboration.
• entity-optimization — coverage that builds notability and knowledge-base presence.
• competitor-ai-analysis — reveals which sources engines cite for your prompts.