The phrase "steer a conversation" is correct and can be used in written English.
It can be used when you want to indicate that you are directing or controlling the flow of the conversation. For example: Jason was a masterful conversationalist and he often employed his skills to steer a conversation in the direction he desired.
Yes, there are occasions when you have to actively steer a conversation away from the rocks, like when you're attempting to disguise from your office mates the fact that you're looking for another job.
"You don't actually gain influence by having a book in Barnes & Noble anymore," she says, adding that her goal is to "steer a conversation" — which is what Hyperink helps her do.
I might be a forgettable social experience, the kind of person who doesn't know how to steer a conversation out of the "What do you do?"/"Where are you from?" stage.
Use the things you know about the person to steer a conversation.
It's just that no one is willing to steer a conversation to deeper more meaningful topics.
Even if you're around a Negative Nancy who is driving you crazy, try to steer the conversation in a positive direction.
He seems to steer every conversation in an international direction; when a group of students visits him to discuss Gulf Coast relief, he urges them to learn from the tsunami in Indonesia.
A more modest approach is to steer the conversation toward an apparently unrelated topic, such as tanning lotions, and then to casually announce.
Given the risk of users being switched off bots double quick — i.e. if they perceive that inviting a robot interlocutor over their messaging threshold will merely result in a deluge of annoying upsell — little wonder Telegram is attempting to steer the conversation in a more consumer friendly direction.
If a particular topic is really difficult for you to feign interest, steer the conversation in a different direction.
