Struggling to come up with your next blog post topic? Interview someone! Adding interviews to your blog is as easy as finding someone interesting who you think your audience would benefit from knowing more about.
Why Interviews?
You are not a faceless corporate automaton—your business and your industry are made up of brilliant, fascinating, dynamic individuals. Interviewing someone creates an emotional link between your business and your audience, giving them a glimpse into the inner workings of who you are and what you do. It’s also an opportunity to shine a light on people who might be deserving of it.
Asking to interview someone also builds rapport between you and them. More often than not, they’ll be flattered that you want to feature them on your blog. And when you link back to this person’s website or social media channels, you’ll give them a boost of traffic and SEO juice—both are things that can go a long way in building a relationship between the two of you. That person will most likely share the article on social media, too, giving THEIR audience a direct link back to your website. It’s a win-win for everybody!
Who Should You Interview?
- Movers and shakers in your industry
- Employees
- Vendors
- Clients
- People who have benefited from your services (success stories)
- People whose services you’ve benefited from
Basically anyone relevant to your business is a great place to begin when coming up with a list of people to interview. And don’t be afraid to think outside the box either.
Interview the moms of your employees for a Mother’s Day feature. Sit down with an employee who has a fascinating journey prior to them joining your company. Ask your team what their favorite Christmas movies are around the holiday season. Profile the keynote speaker at your upcoming annual conference.
What Questions Should You Ask?
It all depends on the person you’re interviewing and the topic you’re covering, but start by asking: Why did this person come to mind? What is it about them that warrants a profile? What do you want your audience to know about this person? List the reasons why so you can start forming questions that go a bit deeper. Additional questions could include:
- Why/how did this person get into the industry?
- What projects are they working on?
- What’s their method for achieving success?
- Have they ever experienced failure?
- What’s their creative process?
- How do they get inspired?
You can format your interviews in a short and sweet Q&A-format or you can create a more in-depth profile—switch it up depending on the person/topic to keep things interesting.
Other Interview Tips
- Do some research if possible. This will prompt better questions.
- Prepare your questions ahead of time so you’re not left scrambling the day of the interview
- Use your phone to record the conversation so you both can talk freely. Type it up after.
- If you’re interviewing someone over the phone, type up the responses as you go.
- Ask your team for ideas—they might have someone in mind that you never would have thought of.
- Read other interviews. Pay attention to the answers the subjects gave—you should be able to trace those back to specific questions that will provide inspiration for your own.
- Some answers often lead to more questions—don’t be afraid to pursue them! Your interview could go in an awesome direction you never could have anticipated.
Happy interviewing!
