Reddit, LinkedIn and Forums: The Hidden Sources AI Uses to Recommend Brands

A good website is necessary, but when ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI Mode search the web to answer, they also cite third-party platforms: forums, professional networks, videos, directories and media. Knowing which kinds of sources appear in your category helps you decide where to be present.

Some studies published by industry companies give an idea of that mix. Profound analyzed 680 million citations from ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity between August 2024 and June 2025, and Semrush analyzed 325,000 prompts from January and February 2026 in ChatGPT Search, Google AI Mode and Perplexity. These figures describe their own samples, mostly in English, and change over time; use them as orientation and check them against your own measurements. To see which sources cite you (or your competitors), see the Perplexity visibility tracking tool guide.

What the Available Data Says About AI Sources

Each study measures something different: some calculate percentages over all citations, others over each platform's top ten sources. That difference changes the figures a lot, so check the denominator before quoting a percentage.

In the Profound study (August 2024 - June 2025), some shares of each platform's total citations were: in ChatGPT, Wikipedia 7.8% and Reddit 1.8%; in Google AI Overviews, Reddit 2.2%, YouTube 1.9%, Quora 1.5% and LinkedIn 1.3%; in Perplexity, Reddit 6.6%. The higher figures that circulate (for example, 46.7% for Reddit in Perplexity) refer to its share within the top ten sources, not of all citations.

These data describe what was cited in those samples. They don't explain why, and they don't guarantee that the same source will work for your brand. See also our AI SEO guide.

Reddit: A Frequent Source, Especially in Perplexity

Reddit is among the most cited community sources, but its weight varies by platform, as we saw in our ChatGPT vs Perplexity vs Gemini comparison. In Profound's sample, it was the most cited source in Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, with the shares above, and second in ChatGPT after Wikipedia.

Platforms change how they select sources with each update, so these shares aren't stable. Check which sources appear in your category's answers today.

Adapting Reddit Strategy to Your Market

Most Reddit activity is in English. Non-English subreddits exist but tend to be smaller.

For brands in English-speaking markets, Reddit can be a relevant source. For brands operating in other languages, look also at local equivalents: industry forums, LinkedIn communities in your language and regional platforms.

The key is to find where your audience publicly discusses topics related to your industry — Reddit, local forums, public Facebook groups or professional LinkedIn communities. Private groups aren't accessible to crawlers; only public content counts. When you take part, identify yourself and follow each community's rules.

LinkedIn: A Relevant Source for Professional Content

The Semrush study, carried out in collaboration with LinkedIn, identified 89,000 LinkedIn URLs cited in AI answers. In its sample, LinkedIn was the second most cited domain and appeared in 11% of answers on average: 14.3% in ChatGPT Search, 13.5% in Google AI Mode and 5.3% in Perplexity.

For B2B marketers, that makes LinkedIn worth considering alongside your website, media coverage and reviews, not instead of them.

What Type of LinkedIn Content Gets Cited?

According to the same study, in ChatGPT Search and Google AI Mode most cited LinkedIn content (59%) came from individual profiles, while in Perplexity most (59%) came from company pages. The most cited content was long articles and medium-length posts with practical knowledge; reshares without added commentary were rarely cited.

With that in mind, it makes sense to work on both fronts: a company page with structured, useful content, and profiles of executives or specialists posting content that shows expertise in their area.

LinkedIn: What to Publish

Post regularly on your company page and on the profiles of the people who represent your expertise. Write posts with concrete data, analysis and well-founded opinions. Include verifiable information: figures, results, tools, comparisons. In Semrush's sample, most cited posts had moderate engagement, so virality doesn't seem to be the requirement.

YouTube: A Multimedia Source Worth Remembering

In Profound's sample, YouTube was the second most cited source in Google AI Overviews (1.9% of its total citations).

If people in your sector ask questions that a video answers well, creating videos with clear titles, descriptions and transcripts can give you another citable source besides your blog.

Press Releases: What to Expect

Press releases distributed through wire services and syndicated on aggregator portals add little as a source of their own if they only repeat the announcement. This guide does not establish a universal benchmark for their weight in AI citations or their return. If you invest in PR, what usually helps is earned editorial coverage in media that cite and explain the news, as the Digital PR for AI visibility guide explains.

The Strategy: Where to Be Present

Because most studies use English-language samples, treat this as a starting point and check it with your own measurements:

ChatGPT (with search): in the Semrush sample, LinkedIn appeared in 14.3% of ChatGPT Search responses; Profound's data showed Wikipedia as a larger share of ChatGPT citations. Reasonable starting points: LinkedIn profiles and company page, an accurate Wikipedia entry if you meet its notability rules, credible media and review platforms.

Perplexity: Profound measured Reddit at 6.6% of its citations (Aug 2024–Jun 2025), the highest of the platforms studied. Relevant subreddits with transparent participation, current pages on your site, industry directories and reviews.

Google AI Overviews / AI Mode: these draw on Google Search, so indexable pages on your site, Google Business Profile, YouTube (1.9% of AI Overviews citations in Profound's data) and LinkedIn (13.5% of AI Mode responses in Semrush's sample).

For all: avoid depending on a single source or platform, because citation shares change with updates.

To check whether that diversification is real, measure documentary dependency per claim with the AI source concentration risk protocol.

Before choosing where to share, build a primary source of your own: that is what proprietary-data research does when published with methodology and a canonical URL.

When the source diagnosis shows independent publications are missing, execute earned editorial coverage with the Digital PR for AI visibility method.

Measure Where AI Mentions You (and Where It Doesn't)

Don't assume that an active LinkedIn means AI already cites you. You need to measure your real visibility in each model to know whether your source strategy is working.

With Mentio you can analyze, depending on your plan, whether ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Grok mention your brand, in what position and with what sentiment. Questions are generated in your market's language for your industry. Try a free analysis.

Want to know if AI mentions your brand?

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