Have you ever wanted to interview someone but found it difficult to come up with questions? If so, this blog post is for you. We will cover how to research an interview subject, the format of the interview, plus some great tips on collecting information from your interviewee.
Choosing someone to interview.
If you don’t already have someone in mind, the first step to creating an interview blog post is to choose someone to interview.
My first tip would be to make sure you choose someone you are actually interested in interviewing! This person should be someone who is involved and knowledgeable on the topic you want to interview them about. This doesn’t necessarily mean they need to be educated in the subject you’re intending to write about. For example, they can be a professional, like an engineer or doctor, however, they could also just be your neighbor down the street whose family has lived in this town for generations.
Think about someone that your audience might be interested to hear from. This might be someone who is inspiring, who has had a journey of some kind that they aspire, a story that others may benefit from, or someone who has a story to share that’s relatable to your audience.
How to research the interviewee.
Next, you will want to think about what questions you would like to ask during your interview. If there are articles published about them already, it’s a good idea to read them! Doing your research on an interviewee is a bit like preparing for a job interview, it really helps if you know some basic information about who they are and what they stand for before you begin the interview process. If they have their own blog or website, read some of their content and things like their ‘About Me’ page.
How to prepare for the interview.
It’s extremely helpful for you, as the interviewer, to have a list of questions readily available in advance. This way the interviewee can come up with possible responses beforehand and make sure they’re well informed with any stats or facts that they may want to convey in the interview.
That being said, if something sparks particular interest, there’s no harm in pursuing the topic with on-the-spot questions.
Writing the interview blog post
Once you have conducted the interview, it is time to create content for your blog from it. Most interview-style posts go one of two ways:
- A write up of questions and answers from the interview
- A news style article that includes snippets and quotes from the interview as well as background information and biographical details
That doesn’t mean that you’re limited to one or the other, it’s entirely possible for you to create both. You could use the Q&A style on your blog and the news style article to publish on article sites/news sites or as a press release for your email subscribers.
Write up of questions and answers from the interview:
The first thing you need to do is advertise the fact that there’s an interview that will be published soon. This entices your audience to read your blog as they know that something interesting is coming. Then, once the information has been collected, publish it onto your blog in Q&A form so that it is easy to read and accurate.
Formatting the blog post
It is important that you use a consistent structure for both styles of interview results so that readers know what will be in each one, as well as when new posts are published on the blog.
Decide on your structure and how you want the interview post to look. Do you want to include photos of the person and/or about the topic you were discussing? You may need to have these sourced beforehand and ensure you’ve sought the right permissions to use them.
It’s vital to have an intro paragraph at the start that introduces the person and talks a little about their background, what they do, why you’re interviewing them etc.
Then finish at the end with a summary of what was said during the interview or the most important points. You may want to link to their own website, Wikipedia page, or even a Facebook profile. It’s a good idea to ask the interviewee which social profile they would like promoted the most so that you can point your readers in the right direction.
Making an interesting read
A good interview is an interesting read that gives insight into the person and the topic or offers helpful tips or information. Writing them can provide you with good content to share on social media and is a great networking opportunity.
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