It’s a new year and in 2026, becoming the commercial marketer – a person who thinks about business and revenue goals first before marketing goals is imperative to success. At B2B Marketing, we believe that there are six skills to becoming the commercial marketer. And two of the most important? Agile-decision making. In this blog, Daniella Sampson, Head of Marketing, Pendulum discusses how advanced social listening is essential in shaping this skill.
As we settle into 2026, many companies are currently crazed with monitoring a high volume of prompts to see if their brand shows up in LLM outputs (think ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini). I have seen when an executive puts a prompt into ChatGPT, hoping to see their brand name surface as a top recommendation, and it doesn’t show up!
But here is the thing… the implications of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) shouldn’t be new to a seasoned brand marketer. While the technology feels futuristic, the core of the shift is a return to something very traditional. Brand reputation.
GEO brings real reputation back
Generative engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity are now the primary way buyers discover information. In this new AI-filled world, the brands that win won’t be the ones trying to trick a computer with surface-level keyword stuffing. But they will be the brands that use GEO, social-first strategies, and advanced social listening as a unified engine for agile decision-making.
GEO changed how brands are discovered and discussed by removing a brand’s total control over its owned channels. In 2026, GEO enables the public to weigh in on your brand directly. Generative engines analyze real conversations, publications, and reviews to provide an accurate brand representation.
To get ahead of this shift, focus less on the prompts and more on the human – valuable sources and valuable citations. This is where agile decision-making comes into play.
By identifying which websites GEO prioritizes as reputable sources, you build a stronger PR and content function in real time. For SaaS companies, this means a heavy focus on G2; for B2C, it means finally investing in a real Reddit strategy.
But, a word of warning here. Do you remember the rush in 2025 when brands tried to regain control over organic narratives – started Reddit and Quora conversations and dropped brand names and links into conversations to rank, and then got banned? (Don’t do that!)
Social has a seat at the table
Priority is shifting toward human conversation, so the role of the person managing those conversations evolves. Yup, that means your siloed social media manager isn’t going to cut it.
For too long, social media managers were treated as task-takers—people who just posted fun content, responded to a few comments, and made the occasional catchy reel. But if your brand’s reputation in GEO is built on real conversations and community, then the person managing those channels is a strategic powerhouse.
Today’s social leaders need a seat at the table because they build strategies, influence the pipeline, and cultivate the very communities that generative engines use to verify a brand’s credibility. Instead of waiting for a monthly report, your social leader can feed community sentiment directly into the decision-making process, allowing for immediate strategic adjustments.
Social listening must evolve
With the explosion of generative content, authenticity and misinformation have become a delicate balance. We’ve already seen backlash when brands use AI in ways that feel transactional or cheap. Consumers are demanding transparency and will pay close attention to how brands use AI over the next 12 months.
So what?
Well, advanced social listening is no longer optional for those who want to make agile decisions. It’s no longer enough to monitor where you are tagged or every X post that mentions your name. You need to understand the narratives in content that isn’t as easy to scan—specifically, imagery, video, and audio.
I have seen firsthand how deepfakes can skew perception; I’ve scrolled TikTok and thought a tragedy occurred, only to find out it was entirely fabricated. As a brand, you need a pulse on your industry that goes deeper than text. You need it to lean into platforms that offer advanced image, audio, and video recognition.
2026 isn’t about monitoring social mentions; it’s identifying emerging topics within a YouTube series or podcast and using that information to decide your next move. Was your brand name dropped? What other topics popped up before and after it?
While you can’t always remove misinformation, you can be proactive by monitoring it and adjusting your communication strategy before a narrative spins out of control. This is the definition of agile reputation management—using deep data to decide when to lean in and when to course-correct.
The future is unexpected and authentic
If the narrative being told by the LLMs isn’t the one you want, don’t just keep refreshing the prompt. Dig into the sources it references and supercharge your PR and content strategy to rewrite that story.
This year, the most successful brands will lean into the unexpected. Investing in collaborations that bring different groups of consumers together—think SKIMS and Nike. Even in B2B, thinking outside the box with like-minded companies in other spaces to grow your brand reputation authentically.
Ultimately, GEO will humanize branding again. It will expose the gap between surface-level marketing and real substance. Those who built their visibility on empty content strategies or algorithmic shortcuts will struggle to stay relevant. But if you have invested in genuine communities and meaningful partnerships, those efforts will pay you back in spades.
In 2026, your reputation will be algorithmic, but your strategy must be human.
By moving social media out of its silo, embracing advanced narrative listening, and focusing on reputable sources over prompt-hacking, you’re building a framework for faster, smarter, and more human-centric agile decision-making.
