Real Estate Agent, Brokerage and Mortgage Blogs

"Imagi-metrics" and the "I" centric blogger

Ever hear someone quote statistics and think, "yeah, they are totally making that up" just to promote themselves. Happens all the time, right? Well, it is the fastest way to lose credibility with a buyer, seller or general visitor reading your blog. The content you create has authority because you have credibility. Remember that when you quote figures and statistics in your blog posts or characterize listings on your site it is important to be honest and support your information by linking to your sources.  

What are imagi-metrics and who is the "I" centric blogger?

As my degree is in sociology, I am going to go at this from a scientific perspective. According to Wikipedia, the Dunning-Kruger effect is the phenomenon whereby people who have little knowledge systematically think that they know more than others who have much more knowledge. According to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, those suffering from Duning Kruger tend to be very "I" centric, often misrepresenting information and overestimating their own importance/ abilities. Know anyone like that? Dont we all. 

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I've been to conferences where feuding gurus pull numbers out of their perfectly pressed kakis, studied "academic research" that quotes itself as the source, read articles in trade magazines that quote the guy who was quoting himself in the research paper. Point is, people like to be right and know "more" than the other guy. Often, when they cant find quantifiable evidence that they are, in fact, right and do know more than everybody else, they start making things up and expect the rest of us to believe it. This behavior is what I lovingly term, the law of imagi-metrics. Imagi-metrics is what happens when someone cant find empirical data to support their claim so they just pretend its fact and quote the imagi-metric. 

How to avoid the imagi-metric pitfall on your blog

Hey, were all human and I dont think a single one of us can say we never used an imagi-metric to get our point across. However, when you use your blog for business purposes, you must be cautious of your content. While I certainly dont want to take your ability to market a dog property away from you with great sales-y text, I do want to warn you against making claims you cant support. One of the things I notice most on the internet is "the back seat expert." This is usually the guy with an unlimited supply of data, statistics, metrics, etc that support his claims but no links to additional sources or independent studies that can back his theories up. This is the guy that looks good in his article, but when you dig deeper, you find that nothing he says is supported!

Because the web is easily searchable, you can be assured that people will find out if you have mischaracterized information or misrepresented something on your site. People are smart and the Internet puts information at their fingertips, so be sure you never come across as a liar- it is a sure-fire way to lose credibility. Back up your data with links to your sources and other experts that agree with your theories. If you put numbers or statistics in your content, link to where you found those numbers.   While most people will never click on those links, it makes them feel better about your expertise. It shows them that you dont pull numbers out of the seem in your saucy little Gucci skirt, but rather pull them from respected supporting sources.

The benefits of linking to your sources:

A good rule of thumb to avoid the imagi-metric pitfall is to show that the content you are providing has authority by linking to your sources because it: 

• Helps discredit those that would try to discredit you and insulates you from attacks form other "experts."

• Helps your site build outbound links which helps with its overall SEO value

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