The Startup Chat with Steli and Hiten podcast.

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about the power of headlines and the weaknesses of skim reading. They explore why you should be reading more than just the headline of an article and how sharing content without being fully informed can affect your startup.

Almost 59% of people only read the headline of an article before sharing it. This phenomenon of not having the time or the attention span to delve deeper into the content that you plan to share has numerous implications. There's no doubt that as a startup it is preferable to be in the 41% who make the commitment to be well informed before sharing content.

Tune into this week’s episode of The Startup Chat to learn about the role that skim reading headlines and content can have on your business and why you should be committed to delving deeper into content. Before assuming that you thoroughly understand a topic. They also discuss the responsibility you have as a content consumer and creator. Also Steli and Hiten, share their top tips, for how to make use of the headline culture as a startup.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:43 Example of how skimming can leave you misinformed.  

01:54 Realizations of misinformation.

02:42 The issue with the headline.

03:05 The power of headlines.

03:25 The headline culture.

04:07 Where headlines are found.

08:21 The influence of content.  

09:04  Exploiting headlines.

09:38  An example of crazy headlines.

10:40 Core message for startups.

3 Key Points:

Did you really read more than just the headline?

Headlines are designed to peak curiosity not tell the whole story.

Be more aware of not falling victim to the headline culture.

[0:00:01]

Steli Efti: All right. This is Steli Efti.

[0:00:05]

Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah, and today on the Startup Chat, we're gonna talk about something that's been in the news a lot, and there's been some specific examples we can give, but the way I'll say it, , is don't believe everything you read.

[0:00:18]

Steli Efti: Don't believe everything you read, AKA, did you really read more than just the headline?

[0:00:24]

Hiten Shah: There you go.

[0:00:25]

Steli Efti: That is my big questions because today, honestly ... Here's why I wanted to talk about it, then we can dig a little bit deeper, but here's an example that prompted wanting to talk about this. We have a common good friend, Patrick, from Price Intelligently and Profit Well. He had posted, recently, a blog post announcing a massive funding round, and they've been famous for being a self-funded or customer-funded startup, doing really well with it, so announcing a big VC led round seemed like big news. I saw the Twitter share of the blog post, the preview of the article. I was surprised and thought, "Wow. Really? I didn't see that coming. I didn't think that they would go out and raise that much money." I copy and pasted the link, and I shared it with my co-founder. Then, we started having a little conversation about it, with my co-founder, and then I decided, in the middle of the conversation, to actually go and read the article, which then led me to realize that at the end of the blog post it was like a, "Psych. This is just an April Fool's Joke. We didn't really raise money." That moment made me realize two things, one, I share ... Like how many times I'll a share a piece of information or news without fully consuming it just based on the headline. Number two, how many times I just look at headlines, and I'll make up my mind or I'll pick or remember a little, tiny piece of information without having context. Number three, I thought, "Huh? This is actually really interesting because I bet hundreds if not thousands of people will from now on and forever be convinced of the fact that Price Intelligently ...