Better Blogging, Part 5: Personal Interviews

Because the interview is such a powerful way to better business blogging, it is crucial for the blog (and thus social media) content writer to learn as many ways to conduct and incorporate an interview as possible.  The whole reason interviews are powerful in the first place is because of their ability to tap into emotions and form connections between human beings, making people feel like they are part of a larger story instead of the isolation our culture (read: social media) seems to be manufacturing by the second.  So, utilizing the types of interviews that draw from a person's own story or life are probably going to be especially intriguing to readers of most any type of business blog, no matter the field, since that is what people seem to be hungering for the most.

Asking interviewees to share from their own lives around a theme related to your business not only honors them, but also illuminates ways in which people have been personally helped or been able to improve their lives using your services.  You can, with their permission, use it as a case study of sorts in your blogging, sharing from their lives real affects your business can have - something any reader (especially of social media content) longs for these days.  You'll also be able to capitalize on the power of human connection and built an emotional rapport with your readers, which alone will keep your readers coming back for more.

If you want to access an interviewee's most impactful moments, simply ask them about their (three or four) most prominent memories.  The reason we remember things, even from long ago, is because they changed us irreversibly, or taught us something valuable that we have applied ever since (and maybe could not have learned any other way).  Hopefully, the research you do in picking particular people to interview will prove worth your time and there will be ways you can present this as relevant content for your business blogs' readers.  Other biographical information can be interesting as well, but it's best to steer clear of a "timeline" format, or a chronological re-telling of a person's life.  No matter how interesting that may be to your interviewee (who isn't interested in their own story?), your readers, who have shorter attention spans than they did a generation ago anyway, are going to need to know why you're telling this story in the first place, and that usually starts with action.

You can also use your interviewee to help you craft an inspirational story.  Different than a case-study, which does take biographical information into account and exemplifies a certain point with it, inspirational stories usually look at one piece of a person's story, either a major turning point, or an event with an unexpected outcome.  The events don't necessarily have to be good to be inspiring, but what the person did with such events does.

For better business blogging, play on the power of personal stories; get your interviewees to share from their own life and then, relate it to what your readers are interested in.

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