He wasn't writing for you. He was writing for ChatGPT.
Profile views tripled anyway. Inbound doubled.
If you're a consultant or founder posting three times a
week, getting likes, and still waiting on inbound, this is the ranking game
you're not playing.
AEO. Answer Engine Optimization.
Someone types a question into ChatGPT Search or Google AI
Overviews. The answer comes with sources. LinkedIn posts are on that list.
Semrush ran 325,000 prompts. LinkedIn showed up in 14% of
ChatGPT Search answers.
Most of those citations went to individual profiles, not
company pages. Half came from accounts under 10,000 followers.
Quotability beat follower count.
What gets quoted (steal this):
1. One question per post
→ Line one is the
exact question a buyer would type into ChatGPT.
2. A plain-English definition inside 3 lines
→ AI lifts clean
sentences. It can't quote a vibe.
3. Your own dated numbers
→ "11
citations in August" gets cited. "Great results" doesn't.
4. A headline + About section that claim the topic
→ The model checks
who's talking before it trusts the post.
Check yourself in 5 minutes: type your ideal client's
question into ChatGPT Search and scroll the sources. If a competitor's post is
there and yours isn't, that's your next topic.
The feed forgets your post in 5 days. An AI citation keeps
answering for you for months.
(I'll say the uncomfortable bit: I think AEO beats the feed
algorithm for inbound by 2027. Most coaches selling algorithm hacks won't like
that.)
Two years from now: does a ChatGPT citation beat LinkedIn
reach for inbound, or is AEO just SEO in a new hat? Pick a side.