What Is Digital PR and How Does It Build Authority in AI Search?

📬 Love the podcast? You’ll love the newsletter.
 Get the weekly 3-2-1 on AI search + marketing: Subscribe

Why does digital PR matter more now than it did five years ago? Because modern PR isn’t about press releases or volume—it’s about authority, credibility, and human expertise, which are the exact signals AI systems rely on when deciding what to surface, cite, and recommend in generated answers.

In this episode of Found in AI, Cassie is joined by Kelly Jura, Head of Product and User Experience at QWOTED, to break down what digital PR actually looks like in 2026 and how earned media plays a critical role in AI search visibility.

Rather than treating PR as a one-off tactic, this episode explores how earned media compounds—building trust signals that benefit search, AI answers, and long-term brand visibility.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What “digital PR” really means today—and how it’s changed
• Why authority, trust, and consistency matter more than backlinks alone
• How journalists actually decide who to quote (and who to ignore)
• Whether you need a PR agency—or can do this yourself
• What makes a source credible enough for earned media mentions
• Why fully built profiles matter for matching and visibility
• The biggest mistakes founders and brands make when pitching journalists
• How AI systems mirror journalistic trust signals
• Why being quotable is more important than being available
• How earned media influences AI citations and recommendations
• Why promoting your mentions matters just as much as earning them
• How digital PR compounds over time, even when pitches don’t convert immediately

If you’re trying to understand how PR fits into a modern AI visibility strategy—and how to build authority without press releases, spammy outreach, or a massive brand name—this episode offers a clear, practical starting point.

ChatGPT ads explained: I posted a short video breaking down what they change—and what they don’t. Watch here. 

Let’s connect:

LinkedIn → Cassie Clark | Fractional Content Strategist
Website → https://cassieclarkmarketing.com

P.S. Is your brand losing its "Answer Authority"?

Most series A/B and enterprise brands are being "nudged" out of AI search results because of entity gaps and "stale" content. I am opening 3 specialized audit slots for January 2026 to help you reclaim your Share of Voice using the FSA Framework (Freshness, Structure, Authority).

Request your 7-Day AI Search Visibility Audit: https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/ai-search-visibility-audit/

Transcript

0:16

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) If you've ever heard the term digital PR and immediately thought press releases gatekeepers in things you are definitely not qualified to do, well this episode is for you today. Because here's the truth, modern PR has very little to do with shouting into the void and everything to do with showing up as a credible human expert when someone actually needs your insights. Hey, I'm Cassie Clark, I'm a fractional content strategist and the host of Found in AI, a show dedicated to helping marketers and founders understand AI search so we don't get lost in this new wave of user search behavior. Quick note before we jump in, last week was a big week for AI search news. OpenAI dropped a feature announcement about ads on a Friday afternoon and if you're trying to wrap your head around how chat GPT ads actually work, like what they do and don't change about visibility, I just published a short breakdown on YouTube. It covers where ads show up, what they influence, and more importantly, what still drives recommendations inside those AI answers. I'll link to that in the show notes if you want to go deeper after this episode. Today's guest is Kelly Jura, head of product and user experience at Quoted. Quoted is a platform I use constantly, recommend unapologetically, and genuinely believe is one of most effective ways to earn real visibility right now. If you've been a longtime listener, you already know how much I love this platform, so I was very excited when Kelly agreed to come on the show. In this conversation, we break down what our media actually looks like in 2026, why authority beats volume every single time, how journalists really choose their sources, and how founders, marketers, and subject matter experts can start doing digital PR today without a full PR team or a massive brand name behind them. So if you care about being trusted by journalists, your audience, and even those AI engines, this episode will change how you think about visibility. Let's get into it. Sure. So I'm Kelly Jura. For anybody who might benefit from an audio description, I am five feet tall. I have blonde hair. I am wearing a pink blazer and a white shirt. I am the head of product and user experience design and research for Quoted. My background is in user experience, product, and brand. Great. Thank you for being on the show today. I do appreciate it. So I mentioned Quoted quite a bit on the podcast and across my website, and I think Quoted is the best platform I have ever used, both for content writing, for all of the things. But for those that are new to what Quoted is, can you explain how it works? Sure. So Quoted is a two-sided network. On one side, we have journalists who are looking for expertise and people to weigh in on subjects. And on the other side, we have experts and PR pros who are looking to get earned media. So for example, a publication or a podcast might post that they're looking for an expert to weigh in on something, and then we find vetted experts on the other side who can respond to that request. Yeah, it's been super, super helpful for me working with all of the brands. I cannot tell anyone enough how great Quoted is. So I want to dig into a little bit about the PR side, because when people hear PR, they're thinking press releases. But how would you define that now in modern day? And what does earned attention actually look like? Yeah, you know, it's a great question. I actually was an expert on the network for over a year prior to joining the Quoted team. And PR is really interesting. When people think about PR, you think, oh, I can't do that. That's not, you know, I'm not a PR pro. I'm not an expert in this. You know, it might be, you know, a little bit scary. But the truth is, if you are an expert in your field, if you have a story to tell, you can earn media. And it's really important to know that there are people who are looking for your expertise and looking for you to weigh in on their pieces. You know, I think a lot about, you know, platforms like, you know, Instagram, for instance, when you boost a post as a brand, you're doing advertising. You may not think you're doing advertising, but you're boosting that post. And Quoted is much like that. We are making earned media accessible to people, small business owners, thought leaders, you know, lecturers at universities, you know, people, again, who maybe don't have a PR background, but are looking to share their expertise and have their voices heard. Quoted is really quite wonderful. Before I joined the team, I was on the platform as a woman in technology, looking to gain exposure as a woman in tech. Because, you know, Quoted does allow kind of underrepresented voices to be heard. And it helps people who otherwise wouldn't have received media attention get that connection to the media and start building that relationship with media. So that brings me to a question that I know my listeners are going to have. Do you need to have like a PR expert on your team going out, sourcing these interviews or mentions for you? Or can you do this yourself? You can do this yourself. You know, PR pros are wonderful and absolutely, you know, very helpful in the process. But what Quoted does is it really gives a platform for you to go and get matched with relevant media opportunities that you can speak to. So this is something as a solo person, if you are an expert in your field, if you're a thought leader, if you are, you know, again, a lecturer, you're a small business owner, you know, we call them experts and even experts. You're like, oh, am I an expert? And it's like, if you've been doing, you know, you're running a business for 10 years or you've been in your field for 20 years, you are an expert in your field and have a story to tell. You should be joining a platform like Quoted to get your story out there. Agreed. I agree. I think that reframe of, oh, I'm just a regular person to an expert is something a lot of us struggle with. I know I do. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And, you know, I think at Quoted, it's really wonderful. We see, you know, every day these success stories from people who are like, I never thought I would have gotten this attention. I didn't know that I could have this win. And now I'm promoting that I'm on this, you know, great, you know, blog or in this magazine or on this podcast. And it's really, it helps fuel our team. We get really excited about it. We share those success stories internally, but we see it happen. We see it happen every day. People who otherwise would not have been quoted in an article or on a podcast or, you know, on, you know, in a magazine are getting this coverage. It's really incredible. Yeah, that is great. Again, I can't say enough kind words about the Quoted team. I love when you all email me things, but like in terms of their visibility, we're beginning to understand that digital PR still matters. Are you finding that more brands are jumping onto the platform now to try to earn high quality backlinks and brand mentions? Yeah, you know, it is really interesting. There certainly has been a shift. There was a time, you know, even 10 years ago when I was working, you know, in kind of brand and user experience where it was just like quantity. Quantity matters. And we were just targeting all of these different keywords. And we had all of these different dashboards set up. And while, you know, sure, there's still a strategy there. It really is more about authority. It's about trust. It's about that thought leadership versus just quantity and volume. You're really looking for authenticity, authority and trust and consistency in voice. You know, I think, you know, 10 years ago, we might be producing 10, 15, 20 pieces that we're throwing on a blog and we're trying to get attention on. And, you know, it's really interesting with the new models and the way people are interacting with AI to ask questions. AI is prioritizing thought leadership. People who are experts in their field, you know, vetted credible sources. So, you know, it's really it's less about the noise and the volume and more about the authority. And we do see more brands, more experts coming onto our platform, realizing that there's real value in having that narrative and having that story and that connection to a brand. So we do see brands joining Quoted and they'll add profiles for, you know, 10, 15, 20 of their experts and then pitch based on what, you know, the request is and who's the best match and who can best answer those questions. Because there is just tremendous value in the way people are interacting with this information. Right. So what determines whether someone is perceived as a credible enough source? Or a quote? Yeah, so there are a few things. One is that we recommend on Quoted everybody fill out their profiles completely. So that means filling out a bio that really tells the media user, the person why you are an expert in your field, adding past publications, past media mentions, things like that to show the credibility, show that you've been an expert in the space, show that you have been quoted in other publications or in, you know, been a guest on other podcasts, really fleshing out the entire profile is super important. The other thing to keep in mind is, you know, we all often will use AI to improve our writing, but you want to make sure that you don't lose your voice as part of that. You never want to use AI to construct the narrative. You want original thought. You want your expertise and your story to be told in an authentic way. In Quoted, we actually have a partnership with Pangram where our media users and people submitting pitches can run through an AI checker to show how much of it is human insight versus AI generated. And we do that because we like the transparency. We don't pass judgment on whether you should or shouldn't use something, but we want people to understand if something is 100% AI generated, we want to give you that information and let you know that so that you can make the determination on whether you want to schedule a phone call with that person or a Zoom meeting to make sure that they can speak to their area of expertise. And so really important to build out the profiles, pitch things that you're relevant for, that you are an expert for, and the things that are kind of in the periphery or things that you're really not an expert in, you know, it's probably worth passing on those unless there's a strong case that you can make or a strong story that you can tell for those. And then really making sure you don't lose your voice by just feeding your copy into AI telling it to rewrite. You know, the interesting thing about our platform is that we connect humans and we're really about human storytelling and the importance of that. So, you know, definitely make sure that your personality comes through, that you are relatable, that your pitch is answering the questions that the media person is asking, and really just not losing your voice to kind of an AI machine. Yes, I agree. After a while, it all starts to sound the same. It does, absolutely. So if I'm a new brand or someone in a new position and I don't have those mentions other places, is that going to stop journalists from choosing my insight as a source or a quote for whatever they're working on? No, I don't think so. You know, everything is, you know, at the discretion of, you know, our media users, what they think is a good fit. If you're able to really flesh out a profile, add links to things like your social profiles, your website, if you're able to add experts related to the brands, you know, I don't think that that would, you know, stop people from quoting you, especially if you are meeting the needs of the person posting the request. Often people are under deadlines and they want somebody to weigh in on a topic, you know, and they're producing a piece in 24 or 48 hours. So if you're able to really quickly respond to their needs, if you're able to create a really tight pitch answering the questions that are asked, oftentimes we'll see, you know, somebody will post something and it'll be five questions and, you know, the people who come in really quickly and answer those five questions really in a succinct manner, those are the people that get quoted. Okay, so it's even if you're a new brand and you don't have those mentions everywhere else, just link to your social profiles. Yeah, link to your social profiles, make sure that your profile unquoted is really fleshed out. And then the other thing is you can always offer to, you know, add more clarity, answer additional questions. You can provide a link to your calendar, for instance, to say here are the five answers to your questions, but if you need any additional information, I'd be happy to talk with you. I can make myself available for a phone interview. Those are all things that are just, you know, really positive and give really good signal to our media users that you're serious about this, that you do have the expertise and you're willing to weigh in on the subject that they're covering. So a different kind of switch for a second. What are the biggest mistakes that you see brands or founders make when trying to get quoted? Yeah, I would say not answering the questions in the request itself. Very often people will quickly send a message and say I'm available to chat, here's an expert. And they leave it there. And the easier you can make it for the person, again, you know, we've all been there. We've all been under deadline. We've all been kind of in a time crunch in our jobs where we're trying to get something done really quickly. The more that you can meet their needs and really give them what they're looking for in that first interaction, I think you're setting yourself up for success. The other thing that, you know, I think is worth noting is that you can pitch something, you may not get quoted in that first interaction, but building that relationship is incredibly important. So it's still very valuable to have that person in your network, make sure that they saw your name, you know, they read your pitch. We know that they read the pitch. Next time they post, if you're responsive and you're providing them a quote, they might be looking for different voices to feature. So again, you know, building those relationships is really important. And the other thing that we see is that people will often not build out their profiles at all. And then they'll, you know, say, oh, I'm not getting matched with really relevant, you know, opportunities. And it's like, well, if we don't know a lot about you, we can't match you with those relevant opportunities. But our tech is really good at matching you once we know about you. Once we have some information, if you add a bio, if you add your title, if you add your company, we're able to match you with very good, relevant opportunities. And I, you know, very often I'll see people say, oh, I haven't had any success or I haven't gotten any email alerts about opportunities. And they just, they haven't configured their accounts at all. Mm-hmm. Which reminds me about how AI systems work in general, like chat GPT or perplexity. The more they know about a brand, the more often they'll be cited. Absolutely. Applies here too. So if a brand wants to be quoted by a journalist and then theoretically cited more often inside AI answers, what should they be doing differently this week? Yeah, I think some really interesting tips would be to do kind of a too long, don't read kind of, here's a snippet. Here is a very, very concise answer to this question. So if it's picked up in AI, for instance, if somebody's asking a question in AI, it gives a really sharp response to that question and then dive deeper. And again, being able to really fully answer the question to get quoted. The other thing that's really interesting is once you've been quoted or once you've made that connection, really promoting that content to make sure that you're driving all of your brand followers, all of the people who are important in your audience to that link. So they see you as the credible source there and also drives the attention to those articles. Very, very important. Pretty often we will see people who get just a tremendous mention. It's really valuable. And then they don't really promote it. And getting the mention, that's the first piece. The second piece is really promoting it after the fact and making sure people see it, putting it where people see it, right? Do the good work and put it where people can see it. Right, and it does a good will to the brand that's mentioned you or the journalist that's mentioned you as well. So final question, if you had to give one piece of advice to brands that want to future-proof their visibility through PR and gain that credibility, what would it be? Start today. You can do it. I think we spend a lot of time planning. We spend a lot of time thinking about the strategy around it. But again, unquoted, we've seen people have success. They start, they fill out their profiles, they pitch and they get this amazing mention. And what feels better than that? Start today. You can do it. Before you go, I want to recap the tips Kelly gave us. First, treat your expertise like an asset. If you've been doing your job for years, running a business or leading a team, you are already qualified to contribute insight. You don't need permission. Just jump in when a journalist requests comments for a piece they're working on. That might be unquoted. It could be on X or LinkedIn. Sometimes they use the hashtag journal request. Search for them if you're looking for opportunities. They will be out there, I promise. Second, build a profile that actually tells your story and is immediately clear. So whether that's unquoted or anywhere else journalists might find you, fill it out completely with who you are, what you know, where you've spoken or written, even if that's just your own platform. The more context you give, the better you'll be matched. Third, when you respond to a media request, answer the questions directly. Assume the person reading your pitch is on a deadline. And since I have been that writer, I can say this with full confidence. They are usually on a deadline. Make it easy for them to quote you without scheduling a call. Seriously, just do that. Just everything you want to say, put it in that message. You can always offer more later. Fourth, protect your voice. AI can definitely help you refine your grammar, clean up any mistakes, but it should not replace your thinking. Journalists and AI engines are prioritizing real insight, not generic answers that sound like everyone else. Also, my cat is in the room. So if you hear sneezing, it's him. He is orange. That's all you need to know. And finally, that fifth tip, start today. Digital PR compounds. So even when your pitches don't turn into quotes, they're still building recognition and relationships with those journalists. And those matter more than just one-off wins. Like for example, if I've seen the same name pop up on the request I sent out, I typically look at those a little bit more often than I do like a new one. So pitch, even if it doesn't turn into a quote. Hey, if you want future-proof visibility, real credibility, and to build entity authority that actually shows up in those AI answers, digital PR is one of the smartest places to invest your time. And if you're not sure where you stand today or what to fix first, I can help. I offer AI search visibility audits that show you exactly how your brand is being represented across AI engines, what authority signals you might be missing, and how earned media content and PR fit together into a system that actually does something for your brand and your brand visibility. You can learn more or request an audit at cassieclarkmarketing.com. Thanks for listening. I will see you in the next episode, which will drop on Thursday, covering whatever AI search news happens this week. I will see you then.