Podcast Summary: Guardrails For Your Online Brand With Paige Donnell

Podcast: The Best SEO Podcast: Defining the Future of Search with LLM Visibility™
Host: Matthew Bertram (MatthewBertram.com)
Guest: Paige Donnell (Founder, Paige PR)
Date: December 8, 2025

Overview

This episode explores the essential guardrails needed for managing and protecting your online brand in a rapidly changing digital and AI-driven landscape. Matthew Bertram sits down with PR expert Paige Donnell to discuss the shifting nature of digital PR, the evolution from traditional SEO to LLM (Large Language Model) Visibility™, the role of personal branding, and how both individuals and companies must adapt their digital strategies to stay visible, relevant, and trusted.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Importance of Online Brand Guardrails

• Personal Responsibility in the Digital Age ([01:24-03:39])

  • Paige emphasizes that what you post online—even from personal accounts—can reflect on your employer and professional brand.
  • “Your social media presence, what you post on any of the platforms, when you do that, even if it's your personal account, you are still representing your company...You own what you post.” – Paige [01:47]
  • Content posted online is permanent, and employers have the right to act on behavior that misaligns with their values.

• The Merging of Private & Public Persona ([04:06-05:38])

  • Matt notes that the concept of a private vs. public online identity is obsolete; you’re a single “entity” in the digital space.
  • “There's no who you are in private and who you are in public. It's who you are as an entity online…What you're associated with, what you're knowledgeable about, what you talk about.” – Matt [04:39]

2. Echo Chambers, Algorithms, and Perception

• Echo Chambers—Risks and Realities ([05:39-07:52])

  • Paige and Matt discuss how algorithmic social feeds reinforce beliefs and can skew perception of reality.
  • Paige explains her PR commitment to devouring news from all perspectives to avoid echo chambers, stressing the importance for everyone, especially brand communicators, to get out of their “bubble.”

• The Changing Nature of Social Algorithms, Especially LinkedIn ([07:53-10:36])

  • LinkedIn now highly personalizes content and elevates posts with anecdotes and videos over generic announcements.
  • “What LinkedIn favors and prioritizes are things that are applicable to you and ones that have like a more customized post...Videos are prioritized.” – Paige [09:56]

3. Newsjacking, Intentionality, and LLM Visibility™

• Leveraging Current Events—With Caution ([10:36-15:33])

  • Newsjacking (jumping on trending news) can drive engagement but must be intentional and on-brand.
  • Vanity metrics (likes, engagement) are less important than targeting the right audience specifically.

• The Paradigm Shift: SEO to LLM Visibility™ ([15:34-18:30])

  • The podcast highlights the exodus of traffic from Google to platforms like Reddit and social media, with LLMs (AI-powered platforms) now driving discovery.
  • “The search game, the discovery game, the visibility game…the positioning…has completely changed and now you've got to optimize everywhere.” – Matt [15:34]
  • Digital PR seen as the new #1 priority by marketers.

4. Digital PR: The New Imperative

• PR is No Longer Optional, Even for ‘Slow’ Industries ([16:27-20:21])

  • Paige outlines how reluctance to embrace PR and content is now actively punished in AI-driven search—especially in traditionally slower industries like oil & gas.
  • “If you're not actively posting on social, if you're not writing your own content…if you're also not getting that third-party coverage…your website is just sinking.” – Paige [17:17]

• Reputation Signals and Authority Weights ([20:21-24:06])

  • The weight and prestige of third-party mentions in high-authority media outlets strongly impact both LLMs and human perception.
  • “The higher, more recognized, more prestigious publishers are going to carry X amount more weight…That’s also going to influence decision making.” – Matt [21:52]

• Staking Your Place is Urgent

  • Matt warns: the “spine is hardening” for rankings in LLMs/AI—acting late could mean missing out permanently.
  • “It’s like wet cement...Get ready—everyone, get ready.” – Matt [23:49]

5. The Long Game of PR & Branding

• PR is About Doors, Not Clicks ([24:05-38:19])

  • Success in PR is about building relationships, trust, and credibility over time—less about direct, linear attribution.
  • “It's about opening doors...you're working on building this credibility over time…By the time they call…it's typically a whole host of things, right?” – Paige [34:03]
  • Agency-client alignment and commitment are necessary for meaningful results.

• Measuring Results: Beyond Vanity Metrics

  • Companies must adopt better analytics and measure what content resonates and drives engagement—not just launches or press clippings.

6. Multi-Channel Visibility and the Erosion of Traditional Brands

• Trust Recession & Multi-Channel Approach ([38:20-43:39])
  • Trust is declining; omnipresence across digital and traditional media builds credibility.
  • “Recession, a trust recession right now. And you have to build that confidence up if you don't have the logo that people are backing.” – Matt [41:50]
  • Small companies can outcompete big names by leveraging digital PR and social more agilely.

7. Building LLM Visibility: Content Seeding and Digital Identity

• Seeding LLMs with Quality, Not Quantity ([44:50-46:39])

  • High-value content (‘white papers,’ multimedia, authoritative case studies) is essential for LLMs.
  • “The more kind of seeds…that you can lodge in and map around your brand, those weighted points are really, really critical because there's a lot of noise, there's a lot of AI generated nonsense.” – Matt [45:24]
  • If digital signals are missing, LLMs act as if those efforts never happened.

• Unrealized Newsworthiness and Content Repurposing ([46:40-48:44])

  • Most firms sit on ‘newsworthy gold’ but don’t recognize or exploit it.
  • “I can sit through one staff meeting, and I'll come out with, like, 10 or 15 things, and it's like half these people are sitting on gold mines.” – Paige [47:26]
  • Reluctance to participate in podcasts or create videos is a missed opportunity for brand lift.

8. Executive Presence, Training & The Strategic Imperative

• Modern Executives Need Digital Presence ([48:44-51:55])

  • Executives must become comfortable as their brand’s spokesperson and actively cultivate their personal digital brand.
  • “Your brand needs a spokesperson. And if you're the CEO, you're the spokesperson. Or...to be invaluable and grow your career options you need to be online.” – Matt [49:11]

• Training, Technology, and Advisory Partnerships

  • Many companies (even large ones) have inadequate internal resources or training to keep pace.
  • Continuous training, periodic outside consultation, and strategic use of AI tools are now essentials—not options.

9. Media & Presentation Training: Long-Term Value

• Public Speaking, Visibility & Career Growth ([54:26-57:26])
  • Presentation and media training are necessary for all levels, with public speaking increasingly tied to career progression and company reputation.
  • “Studies show that…you can't move up in your career unless you're doing some sort of public speaking.” – Paige [54:50]
  • Younger professionals, in particular, are advised to actively pursue these opportunities.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You are responsible and you own what you post. Even if you take it down later, it's out there for the world to see.”
  – Paige Donnell [02:30]

• “There's no who you are in private and who you are in public. It's who you are as an entity online.”
  – Matt Bertram [04:39]

• “It's going to kill companies…if you're operating like it's 1990…this is just going to be the thing that really kills your motivation.”
  – Paige Donnell [18:29]

• “I feel like LLM visibility is really like the laser focus of where I see the market going.”
  – Matt Bertram [15:34]

• “If you're not being strategic…whether it's a PR pitch…or what you're doing with social and SEO…they're not going to be interested.”
  – Paige Donnell [24:05]

• “I'm seeing this erosion of big brands that have not stepped into the Web 2.0 game...the safe harbor of everybody always hires IBM...isn't there anymore.”
  – Matt Bertram [42:48]

• “If you're not surface[d] [in LLMs], you are not even one of the potential selection choices.”
  – Matt Bertram [43:27]

• “Most people need [media/presentation] training, even the most confident speakers.”
  – Paige Donnell [54:34]

Critical Timestamps

• 01:24 – Paige on personal responsibility and brand perception
• 04:39 – Matt on online identity as a single entity
• 07:53 – LinkedIn’s changing algorithm; B2B communities & content types
• 15:34 – The era of LLM Visibility™ and PR ascendancy
• 18:29 – Paige on how traditional mindsets in business are being ‘punished’
• 21:52 – Matt on authority and third-party validation
• 34:03 – Paige on the ‘long game’ of PR trust-building
• 41:50 – Matt: “Recession, a trust recession right now.”
• 45:24 – On seeding LLMs with valuable content
• 47:26 – Recognizing newsworthy stories internally
• 49:11 – The executive as brand spokesperson
• 54:50 – Impact of public speaking on career progression

Resource Links & How to Follow Paige Donnell

• Email: Paige@PaigePR.com
• LinkedIn: Paige Donnell
• Preferred Contact: Email or LinkedIn message (due to phone spam)

Episode Tone & Takeaways

The tone is candid, energetic, and focused on action. Both speakers blend big-picture strategy with practical suggestions, seasoned with real-world anecdotes and a little tough love for brands slow to evolve. Listeners will come away with a clearer understanding of why:

• Digital PR and LLM Visibility™ are now foundational for brand success.
• Authentic, intentional, and multi-channel engagement matters more than ever.
• Building trust, credibility, and executive presence is a long game—but a necessary one—for survival and growth in an AI-driven search environment.

For more on evolving your brand for the LLM era, subscribe to The Best SEO Podcast and connect with experts at EWR Digital and Paige PR.