Better Blogging, Part 3: Basic Types of Interviews

Better businesses understand the power of the interview to transform otherwise parched social media and blog content into compelling reading material.  Business blog writers will learn and master suggested techniques and tips for how to successfully interview - that is, how to get what you need from an interviewee and how to honor her or him in the process.  Now, business bloggers need to know how to best use the information gathered in their interviews: it's not as simple as writing down verbatim what an interesting person said, it's crafting it into solid content that will propel your blog to the top of the social media charts.  It's not as difficult as it sounds, either.  It just depends both on your subject matter and your audience (hopefully these two are, by now, related.)

Because it seems most obvious, a lot of bloggers (and writers in general) tend to focus mostly on flashly items: hot features, statistics and other measurements and what their business has accomplished.  While measurements are good for businesses to use for themselves, readers have a difficult time relating to them.  To capture your readers' attention for more than a cursory glance, find out from interesting, intelligent people (in interviews, of course), what the benefits are of partaking of whatever your business does.  Don't assume anything is obvious - the more light you shed on what's in it for people who use your good or service, the more people will begin to consider these benefits for themselves.  Asking an expert who understands the target audience's needs and hopes will bring to the fore just how good your business is.  It might be even more powerful to find a person who has been a satisfied recipient of your product for extra emphasis.

One way to access the priorities of your interviewer (and thus, if you picked well, your business' area of interest) is to ask them to give you a numbered list.  By asking a "top ten" type question, you are forcing your subject to pick the most important items and rank them, giving you a window into the minds of customers, or at least people interested enough to read it.  Meanwhile, you will also gain insight into markets you wish to enter, or audiences you wish to target.  Numbered or ranked lists reveal what's important to the interviewee, and give suggestions for what might be important in the field as a whole.  Presenting "top ten" lists to readers will also ask them to consider how they might be able to relate personally with your business, and they won't have to read a lot of convoluted copy to do it.

These two styles are arguably of the most easy to master for the writer; starting with one of these will give blog writers time to sharpen their skills while still informing readers.  Once writers achieve comfort here, they will be able to better their blogs by utilizing more kinds of interviewing styles (to be explored later).

Photo credit:  WYSIWYG Sapphire