The irresistible urge to correct
I posted on social media for my company yesterday. It was just sharing an article and its takeaways, nothing too special.
When I logged in this morning to check the analytics, however, it was an outlier post. Thousands of extra impressions and far higher than average engagement. What was up? I learned when I read many of the comments and reposts.
I'd used the same photo from the article hero image in my social post, but I discussed a new drone that was rumored to be in the works. The picture was a current and well-known model. All this engagement was from people telling me about it!
I can see now why it seems like I made a mistake, but the deeper insight was far more important. I was immediately reminded of something I heard Chris Voss, author of Never Split The Difference, say on a recent podcast.
The gist was this: When you're negotiating, a useful tactic is to deliberately make a statement that isn't true or factually correct. Don't do it about something central to the deal, but you mention something small just so you entice the other side to correct you with the truth. They won't be able to help themselves, and you'll gain valuable information you didn't have before.
That urge is just as powerful online as it is in person in a negotiation. Now, I'm not really gaining anything valuable in this particular instance (other than content for this post and some extra engagement for our social accounts), but this experience validated the existence of that human impulse. It's incredibly powerful, especially with smart people (and those that think of themselves as smart). Use accordingly.