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 and some tips on collecting information from your interviewee.
How to choose 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.
Choose someone you are interested in interviewing! This person should be someone who is involved and knowledgeable on the topic you want to interview them about. They can be professional, like an engineer or doctor, but they could also just be your neighbour 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 to or someone who has a story to share.
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, you’ll probably want to read them. Or maybe they have their own blog and you can read some of their content and things like their ‘About Me’ page.
How to prepare for the interview
It might be helpful for you as the interviewer to have a list of questions in advance of doing the interview so that the interviewee can come up with possible responses beforehand and make sure they are prepared with any stats, facts or other information they may want to use in the interview.
That doesn’t mean you can’t ask ad-hoc questions though!
Writing the interview blog post
Once you have conducted the interview, it is time to create a blog post 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 about the interviewee
You could even create both and use the Q&A style on your blog and the news-style article to publish on article sites and news sites or as a press release.
Write up of questions and answers from the interview:
The first thing you need to do is write a post stating that an interview will be published soon. This entices people to read your blog as they know 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 to what was said.
Then, you need to publish the interview on your blog. If people want more information or have questions, they can read the Q&A style post and it will answer most of their queries.
Formatting the blog post
It is important that you use a consistent structure for both styles 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 before and ensure you have the right permission to use them.
Have an intro paragraph at the start that introduces the person and talks a little about their background.
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.
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.
