Coming up with great daily posts is always our clients’ No. 1 concern when it comes to blog content management. After all, the idea well can run dry pretty quickly if your brand is posting a new blog everyday, seven days a week. Interviews are a great solution for blogs in need of dynamic and different content. Not only do interviews break up our blog’s monotony but they also give readers a chance to hear from different voices within our company or industry. Never performed an interview before, you say? No problem. We’ve come up with a fast list of easy blog interview tips!
Pick a great subject: While Shirley in receiving makes one hell of a lemon bar, she may not be the best choice as an interview subject. But then again, she might. To find out, ask yourself this: Would you yourself want to learn more about a certain employee, industry leader or expert? More than that, can you turn a conversation with this person into fascinating blog post? If the answer is “yes,” then you’ve found a subject for your blog interview.
Write good questions: To avoid scrutiny of the “What kind of tree would you be?” variety, ask questions that followers of your brands will be interested in and that have to do directly with your subject’s areas of expertise or interest. An interview is only as good as your questions, so make them fun, provocative and conversational. Also, for email interviews, try to keep the questions down to 10 or fewer. You’re having a chat with this person, not writing their biography.
Edit, edit, edit: Some people just love to talk for hours — and good for them. But ramblers make for bad interviews, so don’t be afraid to trim the fat off your subject’s answers. Are the answers too long? Are there whole sections that if cut would make the piece a better read? Do some of the responses not make sense? Then cut, cut, cut! Again, interviews, like the rest of your blog posts, should pop. They should be the kind of thing your readers want to forward and help people get to know your brand better.
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