It takes a great deal of work to set up, plan, organize and carry out an interview with an expert influencer. It’s a shame to let something totally derail and wreck it after all of the hard work. Here are five common things people do to royally screw up influencer interviews.
Stalking and Communicating Too Much
Before you ask an influential person if you can interview them, you should get to know them and build a relationship with them. This involves following them on social media and interacting with them wherever possible. However, if you communicate too much with them, you could look like a stalker.
Communicate enough with an influencer to stay on their radar. Watch for clues such as slow response time that might mean you’re bothering them. Make your interactions natural and try to make a real but professional connection.
Don’t Be Late
After all the trouble you’ve gone through to prepare and set up the interview, running late and making your interviewee could set the wrong tone and derail the whole thing. This is one appointment you don’t want to be late too. Make sure you can make it at the appointed time and make the time earlier if you have any doubts.
Don’t Be Disorganized
You need to maintain a professional appearance and make good use of this precious time you have with your chosen expert. For this reason, you should be totally organized. Have a clear outline with plenty of questions and backup questions for the interview. Don’t repeat yourself during the interview, asking questions the influencer has already answered.
Don’t Create a “Canned” Interview
As part of your preparations, you may want to give the influencer a list of questions so they know what to expect. You’ll want them to understand the topic of the interview and your goals and expectations. However, if you over-prep the influencer about every single detail of the interview, it could result in a “canned” interview that’s totally prepared beforehand.
It’s your call on how much you want to prep the interviewer, but as a general rule, let them know what they need to know beforehand but not everything.
Don’t Forget to Follow-up
There is nothing worse than a person interviewing you and then disappearing. You need to follow up with your interviewee. First, you need to let them know the details about the publishing of the interview. You may also want them to review the footage or audio in case they want to edit something out.
You should also keep in touch with interviewees as a matter of being professional. Otherwise, they’ll feel that you just wanted their interview and that was it. Stay in touch and keep interacting with them. In addition to being simply good manners, there may also be other opportunities in the future.
I have recently released a training course on how to Find and Interview Influencers. Learn more: www.InterviewingInfluencers.com
