Chat GPT has everyone excited these days – and some of them are thinking there’s no more need for human copywriters.
You now have artificial intelligence at your fingertips – do you really need human copywriters?
If artificial intelligence can write anything and everything, including HTML code, why bother with human copywriters?
Because while artificial intelligence CAN write anything, it has limitations. It can’t do all of it well, or accurately. And, it has no ability to create a personal connection. In spite of what many believe, it can’t actually think.
As Danny Iny points out in his e-book, AI and Online Courses:
“ChatGPT has absolutely no real-world experience to draw on. It has never been anywhere, never seen or done anything, never felt an emotion or a pain. It cannot provide insight and has none of the discernment required to make decisions.”
Even when it gives you wrong information, it sounds exceedingly cheerful about it, and why shouldn’t it? It doesn’t know that it is giving you wrong information.
The thing to remember is that AI is pulling from uncurated internet content, and a good deal of that content is junk. A good deal of it is outdated, as well, since it only pulls from late 2021 back. But it doesn’t know the difference, so it uses both the good stuff and the junk to to whatever you ask it to do.
Before we get to when and where you need human copywriters…
What CAN Chat GPT and the others do for you?
According to Mr. Iny, it can save you a lot of time by taking care of tasks that are very rote and time consuming. We know that it is used to answer consumer questions on a good number of websites. I don’t think it ever does a good job, but perhaps I just ask the wrong questions.
Chat GPT can give you ideas.
If you’re trying to come up with a subject for an article, a topic on which to create an online course, or creative ideas for dinner, it will “brainstorm” with you.
You just keep asking questions and refining those questions, and AI will keep right on answering, coming up with new ideas. It can be just like brainstorming with another human copywriter.
So far, I’ve found this to be AI’s most useful attribute.
I love the fact that it will spit out headline ideas – and keep spitting until it gives me one I like.
*One thing to note: Experienced users say that if you want good results, you must ask questions using full sentences and good grammar.
After you’ve settled on an idea, AI can write your first draft…
Talk about a time-saver! You could tell ChatGPT that you want 700 words on whatever topic you’ve chosen, and you’ll have those words in seconds. Then you can ask for alterations – as many times as you like. I haven’t tried this yet, but I might.
After that, since you DO know the subject matter and CAN spot the incorrect information, you can then edit, correct, re-write, polish, and inject a bit of humanity into the copy.
AI can re-write something you’ve written.
Say you have an agent bio that you like, but you’d like to have different versions on different social media sites. You can give it the original and ask it to re-write with an emphasis on say, your education, or perhaps on your charitable work. Then you could ask it to do it again with a different emphasis – or you could ask for a shorter re-write, eliminating specific information.
You could do the same with a property description or a community page.
As long as all the important information is in the original, it can do a pretty good job. However, you would still need to proofread and double-check for accuracy. And, you might need to inject a human feel.
AI could take an old blog post and re-write it into a new blog post. It could probably also take 2 or 3 posts and combine them. Perhaps it could take 20 posts and turn them into an e-book. If you’re fascinated with AI, why not give it a try? You’d have to do a lot of proofreading and editing, but that would be faster than starting from scratch.
Who should be using AI?
The answer, according to Robert Rose, should be “someone skilled at writing, who can create the right prompts with the right goals and recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the content the AI machine spits back.” In other words, a human copywriter. (And yes, if you write all your own copy and do it well, you are a copywriter. You just don’t generally use the title.)
What AI does not or can not do well…
I’ve tested it on writing community pages by just giving it the name of the community. That didn’t work. As I reported in a February article, it spit out almost identical information for 5 different communities – and didn’t get specific about anything. And, based on the one community I was familiar with, the information was inaccurate.
It also did not do well at writing a property description when given a link to the MLS listing. I have no idea why, but it couldn’t even get the property into the correct city.
It does make sense that it would do poorly at this, because (at least when I write them) much of the information comes from examining the photographs and sending emails to the agent to ask questions. As the listing agent, you could write it based on first hand knowledge of the property.
My opinion: It could probably do a fair job at both community pages and property descriptions IF you gave it all the pertinent information. But – if I have to gather all the information, then why wouldn’t I just write it myself?
What AI does not do at all…
Check for accuracy and/or plagiarism. We already covered the fact that AI doesn’t not know truth from fiction or opinion, so the information it gathers MUST be checked for accuracy.
It also doesn’t know which information is subject to copyright, and it doesn’t provide attribution, so you can’t follow back and gather the necessary information. Grammarly is one of many sites that offer free Plagiarism Checkers. Choose one, and use it any time you use content generated by artificial intelligence.
When should you absolutely NOT use ChatGPT or any other artificial intelligence?
Danny Iny’s advice: “You shouldn’t use it to do anything you aren’t capable of doing or qualified to do yourself.”
The reason why: Because when it uses inaccurate or mediocre-quality information, you won’t know the difference. And publishing bad information will not do anything good for your business or your reputation.
Meanwhile… when you do need a human copywriter, get in touch!
I’d be pleased to write your agent bio, your property descriptions, your community pages, your custom prospecting letters, and just about anything else you need to build your real estate business.
P.S. Who is Danny Iny and why should we listen to him?
To quote Bob Bly: “Danny Iny is the founder and CEO of Mirasee. He’s an expert in the online education industry, and has created multiple popular courses for business owners. He’s also spent the past 5 months exploring and experimenting with ChatGPT and other AI chatbots. So he has an inside view, and he knows how chatbots fit into the equation.”