As a form of content, people love to consume interviews. Whether it’s an interview of someone that they already know of and are interested in or just an interview of someone with first-hand knowledge of something, nothing can beat an interview for giving a personal look at something or someone. However, putting together an interview can be a little challenging at times, especially if you don’t have a lot of experience with this kind of content and are feeling a little nervous yourself. Luckily, there are some tricks you can try to ensure that the time and effort you put into your interview will leave you with some great content to use.
To help you learn how this can be done, here are three tips for preparing to conduct an interview for a story, whether you’re interviewing a top philanthropist known around the world or a local hometown hero.
Aim To Make Your Source Comfortable
Once you’ve nailed down who you’ll be interviewing and have set the date and time for the interview to take place, you now have to put the work in to ensure that your source will feel as comfortable as possible in speaking with you. This can be done in multiple ways.
First, you’ll want to make sure that you have a safe and comfortable space in which you’re physically conducting the interview. Every choice you make should come from the intention of creating an atmosphere where they will feel most at ease. This might include going to a different location than the one you had in mind, bringing in furniture that would appeal to them, or ordering their favorite food and drinks.
Along with the physical space, you also want your source to be comfortable in speaking with you and opening up to you. You can accomplish this by being approachable and attentive to them. Try to keep your nerves in check, too.
Write Down The Right Questions
Before you head into your interview, you’re going to write down the questions that you plan on asking. While you might think that you know the subject matter well enough to go in without notes, if you forget to ask something vital to your story, you’ll hate yourself afterward.
As you’re coming up with your questions, make sure you also consider how you might steer the conversation in the direction you want, even if this might not be the direction the source naturally wants to take things. This can take practice. But by being an active listener and forming your questions to lead naturally into one another, this can help you get to the heart of the issues.
Plan To Take Things Slow
If you’re feeling anxious about the interview you’re about to do or aren’t feeling like the source has welcomed you warmly, you might be tempted to just rush through the process in order to get it over with. But if you do this, your story will suffer.
To fight against this, remind yourself and your source to take things slow. If you have a question about something your source says, ask that question and get clarification. Repeat back to them what you think they’ve said, especially if you worry you’ve missed or misunderstood anything. And give yourself time to catch up mentally by letting both questions and responses breathe a bit before moving onto the next thing.
If you have an interview on the books that you’ll soon be conducting, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you best plan and prepare for this conversation so that you’re able to get the exact story that you want to be telling while building a rapport with your source.
