As a luxury or any other real estate marketing professional writing blog posts or articles as a means of getting business and making yourself known and well thought of in your marketplace, spend ample time researching the facts. Use reliable sources (verified sources) that tell both sides of the story, not just the ones who agree with your point of view, and give links to those resources. Honor your reader by letting them decide how they view it,
Recently, one of our daily feeds' headlines stated that many individuals were leaving the Facebook platform, and or changing their privacy settings. This was a study done by Pew Research. When I read the study, it presented both sides of the story, some were leaving and some were signing on. The feed just told half of the story in their headline, however, they were smart to give the reference. Many would turn around and repeat half the story, and let it spiral via social media and becomes another Faux news tidbit. Personally, we like Pew Research organization as they give you the facts (both sides of the story), and you get to decide your interpretation.
Two years ago, we discovered that what was one a reliable source for us, (Wall Street Journal) was not so reliable. They updated a news article on one of our Santa Barbara County Reservoirs, Lake Cachuma. Their headline stated that the water level was so low the fish were dying. That very day, our local news reported on the Annual Bass Contest at Lake Cachuma showing a photo father and son duo who had won a $10,000 prize for their catch... This was one of the many reasons we unsubscribed to the Wall Street Journal.
When we lived in Napa, every time severe rainstorms were predicted, the news broadcasted Storm Alerts warned everyone in the Bay Area, that the Napa River would no doubt flood that weekend. And the San Francisco news vans drove up and parked near the river hoping it would flood. That had a huge effect on the Napa economy, whose feeder market is the Bay Area. People canceled their reservations at hotels, restaurants and other commercial venues. Napa depends on the tourist dollars as well as the wine trade. Faux news kills employment opportunities.
With the recent fires in the Napa Valley last year, the news predicted that the wine would taste smoky. They did not bother finding out that all the grapes had been harvested and the juice was resting and fermenting in their sealed barrels, and were not affected by the smoke. Think of the economic effect. Napa County is one the richest counties in California! We were close friends with the then CEO of Napa County.
Yesterday, as we were walking out of a store, one of our acquaintances was ranting and raving about the presidential alert test? This gave her an opportunity to to critique the present administration. Did she have the facts? This alert system became a law and was signed by President Obama in 2015. And the president, by law, cannot communicate directly to us. And the Faux facts continued to spread yesterday like wildfire.
Fluff are the Public Relations Vanity pieces. We see them in the luxury and other real estate arenas. Some real estate companies praise themselves as the end all be all gift to the world of real estate with the claim that they know it all, and they are the very best at what they do. They have facts slanted to their point of view. This is known as an advertorial aka Fluff.
The other category of “fluffers” are the virtual influencers. These folks are paid by companies to promote items they "love" and could not live without on all social media outlets. Recently, one of these influencers from a luxury store named 3 cosmetic items that made her day, every day! Just for fun and research I checked it out, and I would not recommend any of these products to my friends.
The next category of fluff is the top 100 or top 25 people or businesses in a category (real estate, social media, sports). This is more fluff. We have a local one that our Independent publication promotes annually claiming it is a reader- based survey. The way to get on the list is to advertise with them year-round. Our dry cleaner recently sent us an email asking us to vote for them, as did our go-to Thai restaurant, and we rarely pick up the Independent.
Facts are objective. Facts are neither true or false. Opinion is one's point of view of the facts, an interpretation of the facts. nothing less and nothing more. One's point of view is neither good or bad, it is a point of view.
Where do you find facts? They are rarely on the first three pages of Google which are laden with paid ads. Those first three pages exist because they are paid for by those looking to promote themselves. Remember, Google wants to make money, they have to answer to their stockholders every quarter. They have no clue as to whether those articles have any validity or are even factual! Here is a telling example:
Our Chamber of Commerce hired the #1 authority on the first page of Google on the subject of social media. Mr. Expert negotiated himself a nice fee, which the Chamber paid in advance. When he gave his talk, it became obvious to the members that this man knew less than they did. When confronted, his retort was" I know how to be #1 on Google." We rest our case.
Our advice to you. Honor your reader, spend ample time researching the facts, and give a link to your references.