I did it and discovered that six-year-old article about interviewing tips is one of my most successful posts. You do, and their on-camera performance is a lot better. I inevitably get something wrong, or I leave a gaping hole in the story that they go on to fill in, which always provides excellent context for my piece. You've asked all your questions and you turn the interview over to the interviewees and let them ask their own question. Simply say, "Is there anything I've left out that you'd like to add?" But if you want that sound bite, for text or video, simply prompt them with "Would you say ________?"
Six years ago, I reached out to fellow journalists and asked them to offer up their top tips for interviewing and reporting. I published the article, watched some of the traffic, and then promptly forgot about it after I moved on to the next project.
I didn’t realize how popular that article was until I wrote another article (for Forbes) about the secret to blogging sitting in your website stats. In that article, I asked bloggers to look at their Google Analytics to see which posts were driving the most traffic to their site. It’s a great exercise if you haven’t done it already. I did it and discovered that six-year-old article about interviewing tips is one of my most successful posts.
Given its popularity, and advice from one of the bloggers, Ed Bott, I decided to go back, edit it, and also produce a video for my Content Marketing Tips YouTube series.
Here are my five favorite tips…
1. Reboot a failing interview
Sometimes interviewees have their shields up and they just don’t want to open up. As you keep pressing, they simply won’t reveal anything. For the moment, don’t push it. Pretend to end the interview. Engage in some small talk. After you’ve loosened them up, say, “Wait a moment. I just thought of something. Can we start again?” You do, and their on-camera performance is a lot better.
2. Throw a curve ball
If you’re conducting a lot…
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