Today’s marketing strategies are increasingly built on a foundation of great content. But anyone who contributes to a blog or has committed to a weekly podcast knows that producing a steady stream of high-quality content can be quite a challenge. At some point, you run out of ideas. What’s a content creator to do?
Find others who have good ideas that you can share and ask them great questions, says master interviewer Susan Bratton. Bratton is the host of popular podcast DishyMix and the creator of dozens of instructional products including “Masterful Interviews” and “Talk Show Tips.” Here are her five top question-asking tips:
- Stay focused. For best results, keep the conversation focused on the person you’re interviewing. Resist the impulse to do too much sharing about your experiences even if they are relevant—as interrupting the flow could cause them to withdraw, or worse, clam up.
- Go with the flow. Alternate between skimming across topics and diving deeper into a particular idea. Have a wide range of questions at the ready, so that you can easily switch channels based on the flow of the interview. This will keep the session feeling conversational.
- Get personal. Answering a few personal questions will help your guest warm to the interview experience and make them more interesting to your audience.
- Ask “dumb” questions. Your audience will thank you, especially if the topic is complex. Bonus: You will give your guest a chance to look really smart!
- Prepare properly. Email each guest a list questions to answer before the interview so that by the time you get them on the line to record the podcast you already have a very good idea of what they know—and what would be interesting to your audience. Do a Google search on the person’s name, and look at their LinkedIn profile and blog posts, etc. to get a feel for who they are. Susan emphasizes: The more prepared you are, the better responses you will get from your guest.
In addition to helping you create great content, Bratton says the biggest perk of asking good questions is that it provides the privilege of talking to new, interesting people all the time, and with that, the opportunity to expand your network of contacts and influencers, quickly and efficiently.
Tags: asking good questions, content creation, Interview tips, Susan Bratton
I’d have to add to that list: Don’t be afraid to go off-script! As the producer of a popular podcast series involving interviews with industry experts in the fireld of learning technologies, some of the best conversations we have had came from unanticipated questions – ones that weren’t on the prepared list of questions, but became part of the interview as the actual conversation was taking place. At first our host resisted asking such questions out of fear of catching the participant off guard (we follow all of the steps described in the article including sending each guest a list of questions) or digressing from the original topic or both. However in many cases, taking that leap has made for a conversation that was far more interesting and valuable to our audience.
-Alex
Alex,
To your point, I’d add to this list a sixth tip, which is, “Don’t be afraid of dead air.” Sometimes if you just ask the question and shut up, the 15-20 seconds of space allows an interviewee’s brain to relax and they open up and start saying all kinds of fascinating things! Thanks!
I agree with Alexandros. Sometimes a good question will come out of a previous answer and I want to take the interviewee there even if the question wasn’t included on the pre-interview list. Spontaneity works well.
A content creator running out of ideas? Oh my, how terrible. I love Susan and listen to her podcasts religiously. But there seems to me a slight disconnect here. Yet I do think content creators should follow your recommendation and do quality interviews. I had the pleasure of video taping HubSpot’s VP of Customer Success (love that title), Jonah Lopin – and combined it with a series of emailed interview questions produced here: http://www.b2binbound.com/blog/bid/38604/Maximizing-HubSpot-Customer-Success-Jonah-Lopin-Interview – it was refreshing.
But…true content creators don’t run out of ideas. They have a burning desire to communicate a definite purpose. And, they possess a creative imagination in persistent, continuous movement towards achievement. Those of you, “Think and Grow Rich,” Napoleon Hill junkies will know what I’m referring to. Part of the problem is we get ideas all the time but “most ideas are stillborn and need the breath of life injected into them through definite plans of immediate action,” according to Hill. The content creator’s challenge is to focus on nursing and breathing life into ideas. And, as Hill states, “every minute it lives gives it a better chance of surviving.”
Hi Greg! Of course, as content creators, and creative people in general, we have ideas-a-plenty. And a burning desire to communicate as well. But to stand out, to earn the respect and attention of readers, requires a scrupulous vetting and qualifying those ideas. Are they fresh? Have 1,000 other people written about them — from the same angle? Do I have anything new to say about these ideas and if not, who is thinking more deeply about this subject (and thus has something really valuable to say on it) than I do?
It’s the questions that force the cream to the top. Relentlessly and rigorously judging our ideas and only giving those that will truly helps readers move forward is an act of respect and, I think, what keeps readers coming back to read more, as well as compels them to share our work with others.
The vetting and qualifying of ideas is a valid point. Noodling on an idea and letting it incubate while you do further research, explore angles and value to others makes total sense. The point I was trying to make was once you’re in your “Element” (where passion and natural ability merge – according to Ken Robinson in “The Element) you are in the zone of creativity and not void of ideas.
Thanks for the thought-provoking post and comments.
Greg
Indeed. Also known as “Flow” (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi). But for the times you can’t get there (into that groove) and you still need to produce and post something, knowing a shortcut or two sure comes in handy!
Thank you too, for the great insights. Cheers! H
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