ChatGPT Keeps Recommending Me. Here’s Why I Think It’s Happening

Andréa Jones: Okay, so ChatGPT recommends me. And first time this happened, I remember it so specifically because I took screenshot of it and was like, holy crap, somebody emailed me and they were like, hey, I'm here because of ChatGPT. And my first was, Little old me, like, why me? but it happens so consistently now, and this shows up in my ⁓ data dates that I record on YouTube on or around the 10th of every month. Very consistently for the past six months, GPT has understood me and my business enough to that I belong in one of the responses linking out to my website. Never mind how many times it recommends me and someone doesn't click that link, but they go and Google or search me directly, right? Or they over to Instagram or something like that. So today I want to talk about and I want to show you how Chat GPT and other similar AI tools understand your brand. And why branding is so important when it comes to becoming recognizable enough that the AI tools will recommend you. I wanna say that I am not a Chat GPT, like does everything for me, fangirl. Okay. They're not paying me to say this. There's no guaranteed formula behind this. Chatty is the one that I use. Okay. You can use this strategy with any of them. Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, anything. Okay. This is less about like, I've cracked the ChatGPT code and more about like I've spent years building a recognizable brand and now I'm seeing that recognition show up somewhere else. Okay. I don't know the question that they asked, but what I do know is that they were looking for a couple of different people. One Jasmine Star came up a branding expert focused on helping small businesses and personal brands. Elise Dharma showed up as content and monetization for service providers. ⁓ Samuel, who does video video confidence. And then me, Andrea Jones, Social Media Strategy for Thought Leaders. this was last year. It said the focus is on sustainable content marketing for mission-driven businesses, and specifically told this person that I'm great at mapping content pillars, ⁓ a loyal audience, and connecting with followers. So again, I don't know the question that this person asked, but the answer that it gave is really exciting because it understands the category that my business belongs in. So if I were to guess, again, I don't know what it is, but if I were to guess, I would hope someone would type in something like, are the social media marketing experts who help small business owners avoid burnout? Or you recommend a marketing strategist with a more sustainable approach? Or who teaches simple social media, right? All of things kind of align with what the things that I repeat publicly and consistently. Social media strategy, mindful marketing, simple systems. ⁓ Even things like sustainable marketing or marketing that fits real life or content that actually supports client and income or all the things and the themes that I want people to associate with me. So while I can't reconstruct the exact sentence that someone types in, I can study the answers and see ChatGPT appears to understand about my brand. What you should know is that ChatGPT found enough public information about me to include me in this list. This information is connected to my name, Andrea Jones, and relevant marketing topics. There are multiple public sources that reinforce and have similar associations. my business is understandable enough to fit inside of this recommendation. Okay. So is why it's so important to skip the like know what people are prompting thing and understand how ChatGPT understands your right? How does AI understand who you are? no matter what question someone types in AI, are you being listed as a potential ⁓ Right. I don't want you to like key SEO stuff your brand. Okay. This isn't about going to your website and ⁓ and it to say ⁓ best strategist according to the robots. Like we're not gonna do that, right? But We're going to infuse that understanding into your brand. There's a big kind of brand lesson happening here, is the AI tools need clear information to associate with your name. ⁓ that information has to be digestible by humans. And can't be cute about it, right? I've been this for years, but I remember I distinctly remember doing an audit of a LinkedIn account years ago. And it was like manifest your best life. And it wasn't until I was talking with this woman that I recognized that she was a money coach and she helped people with their money blocks how they thought about money. ⁓ so it's like, okay, let's go back, right? Three steps to the person who doesn't know what manifest your dream life is and say, ⁓ help people understand their money so they can live a better life. You see how much clearer that is. ⁓ we want clear information that AI and humans can associate with your brand. So for me, it's things like my simpler, smarter marketing for busy people. I love that. I'm working on like a little so that, so that your marketing systems fit in with your real life, right? That's what I want people to know me for, but they may say it different ways. Sustainable marketing, mindful marketing, content that leads somewhere, clearer connections. I don't want to live on social media all the time, right? Those things I need to say consistently and their core ideas that I have consistently in my content it kind of come at it from different angles, right? So it's consistency in the messaging, but it's said different ways because humans say things in different ways, right? I would want a recognizable brand, but something that gives people the mental shortcut for something they already understand, they already know, they already talk about, right? And I sometimes with the mental shortcuts, We really try to do things that actually harm our brand more than help them. I've talked about this on the podcast before, but I say very clearly to anyone who asks or when I talk about these topics that I work with all genders, right? I'm not a brand ⁓ is for women only. ⁓ there are a lot of brands out there for women only. I'm not knocking them, but saying that sometimes we jump to that conclusion as a shortcut for what we're actually trying to stand for. Right. still believe in uplifting and empowering women, especially as a black woman, as a queer black woman. ⁓ want to make sure that I speaking to my people, they understand my history. ⁓ But I worked with so many different people that I don't want to exclude, right, from that messaging. For example, one of my past clients is a trans actor. He's a man. So I don't want to exclude him from working with me by saying that I work with women. then it gets even more confusing if I say work with women ⁓ nonbinary people. He's not non b non binary. He's a man, right? I would want to work with him and I would happily work a trans man, right? So it's I don't want to exclude people from that. So in my and in my marketing and the way that I speak, the way that I talk, the analogies that I use. I show that rather than saying work with women, I work with all sorts of people. typically, we tend have a lot of feminine energy, right? Like if you like to talk through things, talk it out, I'm your girl. All right. ⁓ So I that into brand without excluding people. So I want you think about this for your brand. Your identity layers are super important when we think about ⁓ sending out signals to people understand your brand. So right away for me, I make sure that Andrea Jones is connected to Online Drea. Online Drea and Andrea Jones should be kind of synonymous. name is on the website, it's on the podcast, it's on my YouTube channel, it's in my social pro profiles. When people interview me, it's Andrea Jones from Online Drea, it's on my speaking pages, right? ⁓ those two things are always connected. My descriptions also identify me a marketing strategist and educator. And I had to make that shift after being a social media manager and agency owner, right? So as a social media manager and agency owner for the first, say, eight, nine years of my career, right? And then in the past three, four years, we've shifted into marketing strategist and educator. I still end up talking a lot about social media and community building because people love that topic. We start there and then usually we're talking about marketing systems and like your marketing preferences and your own way of doing things, right? But marketing strategist and edic educator is how I want people to know me. then generally my profiles are part pointing back to the same kind of ecosystems. So easy one, back to my website, onlineedrea.com. ⁓ then I also have my do less market better kit, ⁓ is my main lead magnet for a lot of things. I have other things like my social media platform guide, or we get closer to the holidays, my holiday guide, like those things are specific use cases. However, most things go back to do less market better kit because it's my philosophy. So when you're thinking about this for yourself, I want you to ask yourself, is your name written consistently everywhere? Does your business name ⁓ connect to you? Do your profiles look like they they belong to the same person? Like when I go to your LinkedIn, does it look the same as your Instagram? Does it look the same as your website? Like, am I making that connection? ⁓ And then if someone heard you on a podcast and then they just Googled you, would they find you? Right. So we want to make all of those things together. And yes, your branding can evolve. Mine has evolved over time, but people still need to have a very clear thread that they can follow to find you. Okay. So those are ⁓ of like base level consistent identity things. Second thing you want to do ⁓ have distinctive language that makes you stand out against your competitors. And also gives your content a lane, right? can say I'm a marketing strategist and educator, sure. But examples on how ⁓ I what my lane is is mindful marketing. It's the name of the podcast, it's the name of my program. My tagline, smarter marketing for busy people. even my free lead magnet, the do less market better kit. I talk a lot about marketing that fits real life. my framework is called the marketing playground. So I help people. build their marketing playground. I talk a lot about marketing actually going somewhere, leading somewhere, right? ⁓ talk about how to connect your content to your clients to your income, right? We're not, not like copy pasting the same phrase everywhere. I like to think of this as your commercial jingle, especially folders. ⁓ They have different artist sing it every time, but the words the same. They add their own flair to the tune. Or if you want a different example, when someone sings a Star Spinkle Banner before, you know, a football game, everyone's got their own little flair, but we know the song, right? So I want you to have the same song ⁓ on the platforms, just add different flares and different emphasis to different things, right? And yes, you may get tired of this. That's not the point. I don't care how you feel about it, ⁓ but audience, your community needs to remember you. And in order to be memorable, You have to be consistent with your message. about how many posts are on social media right now. How you name something you saw yesterday? No. sometimes watch a post, I'll send it to someone, and they'll respond a day later, be like, haha, that was funny. And I'm like, I don't even remember what I said, right? ⁓ Like, we want be so repetitive that we are associated with something. We also want to known enough so that people can describe our work back to us. We want, I distinctly remember this. I had a client who came on a call with me, and she's quoting to me stuff I said in the podcast. I love it when happens because I'm like, ⁓ yeah, I did say that, and I do be saying that a lot. Okay, because repetition is key here. We want to have a perspective. ⁓ That someone understands, associates with us, and can repeat back to us. And then when we go on to speak and collaborate, it's easy to talk about. And no, you don't have to have a niche. Okay. I know people say or niche, well, however you say it, the riches are in the niches. I think so it's niche. I don't necessarily think you have to have a niche per se, ⁓ but need to have a collection of of recognizable topics that people can associate with you. so I'll use another example for this. My Leek Teal does this so beautifully. She used to be the founder of Curlbox. Before that, she was a PR Strategist, I would say. she is a life and business coach. She has this way building community. She started this community called My League and Mamas about black women who are going through motherhood or want to support that journey. This has nothing to do with PR or curlbox, right? But it is an evolution of a brand that makes sense and it's associated with her. ⁓ So though she talks about different topics. It sits underneath a recognizable umbrella. Hey, third thing, and this is the most important thing. This is the part that people want to skip. It's having a large body public work. I'm talking volume, yes, but longevity even more. Okay. So for me, for example, we are in episode 400 and what, 14 of the podcast. So over 400 episodes of this podcast exist. About me talking about first simple simple and savvy social media and now mindful marketing, right? 400 episodes. YouTube videos. I think I'm over 200 over there. I know we just passed 5,000 subscribers. Yay, love that. Website My website, I actually had to go back and clean up old posts recently because I've been sharing on there for over 12 years. social media, same thing. Places I've been interviewed. ⁓ So it not just your own content, but having your content live other places. guest appearances, whenever I speak at an event, they usually have that on the event website, other bios in lot of different places. Like I just signed up for a new social platform called Hey Cafe. So I'm just like testing it out and seeing it, but it's another place where I publicly talk about mindful marketing. So I'm not saying you have to be everywhere. I know people are like, ⁓ this sounds exhausting. But what I am saying is there's an idea that you need to have a body of work, whether it be a blog, a podcast, YouTube channel, something that's public, not behind a paywall, something that's public that allows AI to understand your philosophy, your ideas, your context, and create a pattern from it that it can recognize. And so then it can point people back to who you are. is the piece that is the most important piece out of all of this. Yes, you can go viral. That's great. Cool. I love that. But body of work helps people remember who you are, one, and teaches the AI who you are as well. So now AI recommend you to someone else who in their little machine, give me this thing. Right. So here is the fourth signal to all of this third party validation. I'm gonna like emphasize this part because yes, you need a body of work that you've created, but kind of like I will say this is maybe like 3A, or maybe 3A is the body of work. 3B. So gonna rename this to like 3B. ⁓ 3B having that third party validation from sources. And I will say the biggest one for me BBC. I referenced in two BBC articles now. I'm a reference on CBC and my partner's re reference in the Globe and Mail. I have other things like create and cultivate. I have spoken at podcast movement. I've spoken for high vibe women. I've been f nominated for an award here locally for women in business. Like I have other places. ⁓ Referencing work about the the podcast won the best in business ⁓ podcast or was nominated for best in business and podcasts two years in a row for podcast awards, like things like that, right? So it's like not only do I have my website saying I'm a marketing strategist, I have other people saying, This is Andrea Jones of online Drea, marketing strategist, or an event page that says, come out hear Andrea Jones speak about mindful marketing, right? Or an article that says rage baiting dangerous. And marketing strategist Andrea Jones is gonna talk about what it is and why that matters, right? ⁓ you need someone else patting you on the back. These third-party pages kind of reinforce whatever it is you want to be known for, or whatever it is you want your brand to be known for, right? So only do you need to describe your work clearly, ⁓ but also helps when other places on the internet do it the exact same way. ⁓ And this is the challenging part about kind of evolving your brand over time. not that you can't change. I'm not saying that, but the more often you change, the more confusing it is for people to put you in a category. And our little like reptilian brains, we want to categorize people. ⁓ why I can say something like, I'm queer black woman. Like when I that, it helps people understand category immediately. I can also put mom, business owner. I born in the US and now I live in Canada that I have a dual citizenship. Like whatever whatever markers I want to put to that, I can. But we as humans and social beings, we like categories. So help AI put you in the right category. Okay. The last piece of this is like repeat it in places that don't seem obvious. So I talked about having a clear kind of name recognition. I talked about Creating brand messaging. I talked about having a body of work. And now we kind of want to put the little, little pieces together in as many places as possible. So for example, I'm posting a YouTube video, I almost always put a little about me section in there in the description. It's really for you. Like most of you listening to this or watching my videos, you know who I am, right? ⁓ A of my community kind of knows who I am. You watch. The videos, great. But if you're new to me, you don't know who I am, that's for you. But even more importantly, this is for AI, y'all. like I don't write it like a robot. I write it like a human. But I put things in there about like mindful marketing. I'm gonna put in there my do less market better kit. My about page is gonna talk about my current work. When I'm on another podcast, I want them to say mindful marketing or simpler, smarter marketing for busy people somewhere, right? When ⁓ I am introducing myself in these videos. I'm gonna say my name. Yes, again for new listeners, but so AI can read the transcript and know what the heck I'm talking about, right? Because AI can't listen to this ish. And the way that I talk, AI gets so befuddled and confused. So I'm gonna have clear moments where I'm like, simpler, smarter marketing for busy people. Thank you, ChatGPT, for writing that ish down, right? ⁓ So branding can be beautiful and pretty and stuff, but I'm talking about like the nitty-gritties of like how can people understand what you do? And it's not hiding it and it's not making it mysterious. It's being explicit. The time to be mi mysterious is when you already have a brand or a business. I was actually talking with someone about this recently. they wanted to do this launch for a product that they've been working on for dang five years, I wanna say. And they wanted it to be like a Beyonce dropping a new album moment. And it's like, okay, Beyonce can do that because she's Beyonce. You, my dear, need to have a launch plan. And that launch plan is probably gonna be at least three to six months of your time before you see the result that you want to see. You can't go into it expecting day one, you drop the thing, it sells out. Like that is so, so, so, so, so, so rare. Most of the time we're working really hard on telling people about it and being crystal clear about it and not hiding the bacon. Okay. Okay. So your homework for today is to do a brand audit. But a brand audit and how AI associates you. Now, you can ask your people, which I do recommend, or you can ask AI. AI will give you some information, but like talk to real people too. So a question you can ask are. What are the three things you associate with my business? So for me, I hope someone would say mindful marketing, simpler, smarter marketing, marketing that fits my real life, right? If someone says, ⁓ you're a business coach, then I'm like, No, sorry, wrong But if someone said, I think you help people create marketing systems for busy, busy people, maybe service providers or coaches, and I'd be like, Okay, great, now we're on to something, right? Even if it's not a hundred percent correct, I want their opinion as of like word association. What do you associate with me? Then I want you to look at your profiles, your website, your about page, your Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, podcast, whatever, and say, Would someone looking at this page associate that word with me? Right. For example, if I say I want to be simpler, smarter marketing for busy people. If someone goes to my Instagram, do they get that vibe? If they look at my YouTube, do they get that vibe? And then I'm looking at my content specifically. So I want you to look at your latest six to twelve pieces of long form content and short form content and ask yourself, what topics are you repeating? topics ⁓ associated with that? with of like your vibe, your band, your brand. Does your of view come across enough? Like Can people tell how you're different from the rest of them? you showing your expertise in the lane that you want to be known for? And someone describe what you do after looking at your last 10 posts? Right? This can be very challenging for those of us who have like more of a lifestyle approach. And I'm the line this my brand myself. I can think about this with my Instagram specifically. Lately, y'all, I've just been trying to have fun. I know, I know, but looking at my data. Instagram doesn't convert as well for me as it used to. It's YouTube threads, LinkedIn that are my highest converters like actually going out and guesting on other things. So I spent a lot of time there. ⁓ Instagram just ends up being kind of for fun. It's to go into this recognizing that. Okay. Next step. I want to search your name. the last time you Googled yourself? And put yourself an incognito browser, okay? Search your name like Andrea Jones, your business name on Andrea, your topic. So Andrea Jones Marketing. Cause there there are some of us. There is a real estate agent and an author, like a self-help book. They have my name. They come up before me in a lot of cases. I think it's recently if you're in Canada, I come up first. In the US, they're they come up first. so it's it's interesting to know. But if you if you search Andrea Jones Marketing or Andrea and Jones Social Media, I come up. Andrea Jones podcast, right? Like if I met someone and they didn't remember mindful marketing, but they remember my name, I want my name to come up for the podcast. Andrea Jones interview, Andrea Jones speaker, you get the point, right? Look for comes up ⁓ then go and make those changes. ⁓ you were interviewed on a podcast two years ago that has a different name, email that person and ask them if they can switch out the name of your business or ⁓ topic or ⁓ just link to your current offer and be like, Add a one-liner. Make it easy for them too. Write it for them. Hey, this is what the podcast says, or it has a broken link. Do you mind swapping it out for this link? Right. everyone loves featured places, but sometimes we do it and we said it, forget it. Like, let's go back and refresh those because AI is looking at that-ish. All right. Step five. I want you to make that your public home pages. ⁓ Have clear descriptions of what you do. Now this one's gonna take some time. This one's gonna take some time. not telling you need to redo your whole website, but what I'm saying is when someone lands on the homepage of your website, they kind of need to know what you do. And this is again for AI, but also the humans who may click on that link from the AI that's recommending you, right? So here's a simple kind of like template that will help. you could say your name helps. specific audience achieve this result through whatever your approach and your expertise is. So if I was going to do this, I would say Jones helps busy business owners build simple marketing systems that connect their content to their clients and income. Right. So it's very that's like what I want people to know me for. I'm not saying marketing or being on social media for fun. I work with like Personality-driven brands, but I also lately have been working with a lot of local businesses, a lot of quote unquote boring businesses that still need their marketing system to connect with their content and their income, right? That stays the same. So if I were to do this audit for myself, I'd look at my website and go, okay, maybe I need to talk more about content connecting to clients and income, right? So adding that in, I talk a lot about simpler, smarter marketing, but I want to connect it to your clients and to your income. then just put that everywhere, right? even into ChatGPT and ask, like, what do you know about me? That's a great one. Now, ⁓ speaking AI, I do want to say that I use AI a lot. ⁓ And of the things that I've used AI to help me with specifically is building a brand book so that I produce is tied in with that brand. Okay. ⁓ And it I'm not talking visual brand, though I do have that in my brand book. What I am talking about having ⁓ help things with me that are on brand. Or even when I ask AI a question, it has the document, it has the update. You can also just have a brand book to give to your clients. I just onboarded my lovely new assistant recently ⁓ and was able to just hand her here's my brand book, here's everything I stand for, right? ⁓ The brand book great if you're a business of one. It's great if you have a marketing department. It's great if you use AI. It's great if you don't use AI. But the whole point of the brand book is talks about who you are, what your business does, who your business helps, what is positioning in the marketplace, what is your unique point of view? ⁓ What do want to be known for? What content pillars do you frequently talk about on social media? ⁓ What are signature phrases? What are your offers and how do they connect with your content? are the things your audience say they need and what do you know that they need? ⁓ is your voice and personality of your brand? ⁓ what's an example of your brand in action? Like all of these things can really help you create more consistent content, clear website copy. It helps you delegate easier, prompt easier, make a decision easier because you can like reference your brand book and be like, this doesn't fit, right? It's not Something that's just supposed to be like a pretty PDF that lives in your and dies in your in your Google Drive, right? I'm talking about a working, living document that helps you create, communicate, and make decisions without rebuilding your entire brand every single week. So I am hosting a class called Build Your Brand Book Way with AI, where I will help you cover the foundation for this. Depending on when you're watching this, the class may have passed. You can definitely catch the replay still with the link. Or you can join us live August 13, 2026, at 11 a.m. Eastern. It's a 90-minute class because it's like it's a bit chunky. but we will be working together on building this brand book. And then if you join us live, I'm doing a get it done week the week after the 17th through the 21st. Where we're actually gonna work on this together because implementation is important. This isn't a class where we you sit and watch. Okay. I call those watch shops. ⁓ is a workshop. We're gonna get to work and get recommended by Chat GPT. That's kind of my ultimate goal. Is like at the end of this, you have a brand book that your business is clear, consistent, and easier for people to understand, easier for you to s understand. So then you can be referenced more. Okay. The link to the Build Your Brand with AI workshop is below. ⁓ gonna create a document that stops you from starting from stra scratch every time and actually guides you through building out this book. So will this get you recommended by ChatGPT tomorrow? I can't promise that. But what I will say is by the end you'll have a deeper understanding of how to make your business super easy. ⁓ To recognize, easy to understand. And that's a value that's working long before kind of generates whatever answer it does. Okay. So I'll see you in the class. Otherwise, I'll see you in the next podcast or video very soon. Bye for now.