When you think about turning your interview into content, you may assume that this means a writing up a series of questions and answers. This is often the kind of interview we see online, but honestly, that format has a lot more in common with a questionnaire than it does a genuine interview.
Think for a moment about reading an interview in a magazine. Very often you will notice it has a quite different, editorial approach. Here, the writer will turn their encounter with the interviewee into a story and will make it far more engaging as a result. So how can you go about doing this as well?
Taking Inspiration from Video
The solution can lie in looking at how a video interview is conducted and how this differs compared to a written interview.
When you watch an interview on TV or on YouTube, you automatically take much more away from it. Not only do you hear the answers that the interviewee gives to the questions, but you also get to see how they are responding and how they are conducting themselves. You get to see the setting and generally you get much more information that is implicit rather than explicit.
So if you’re writing up an interview as an article, this is what you want to bring to the table. Talk about how the interviewee shifts in their seat, how they appear uncomfortable, or how they lean back nonchalantly. Be polite and don’t elaborate unless it’s founded in fact – but just try and transport the reader into the moment with you.
Add An Extended Introduction
Even when writing a set of interview questions in questionnaire format, you should still include some kind of introduction that will set the scene and that will get your readers interested to read on.
Why should they care about this person? What do you think about them? How is this a unique and exciting occasion? Just as you would make any article sound exciting before launching into the body of the text, you should do the same thing with an interview. In this case, you can consider extending your interview introduction throughout, so that you make everything seem more exciting and interesting.
Add Your Own Narrative
Finally, add in some narrative to help with this. This means turning it into a story and using anecdotes and/or a backstory to sell what’s happening. This is a great strategy that can add a lot of color to your article or blogpost, and will really make people to want to keep reading.
