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Interviews are one of the most popular forms of podcasting. However, not all hosts know how to make and develop appropriate content.
So, how to interview someone podcast? Let’s learn the step-by-step process:
- Find exciting guests.
- Do the background research.
- Write the bio for the guest.
- Give the audience what they want to hear.
- Prepare a questionnaire in advance.
- Pre-interview.
- Listen actively.
- Stay aware of time.
To learn more about the details of the steps, let’s continue reading our article!
How To Conduct A Podcast Interview? Step-By-Step Guides
Although interviews are one of the most popular types of podcasting, not everyone knows how to conduct them appropriately. Follow the step-by-step instructions below to explore the process in detail.
Find Interesting Guests
Even the most skilled interviewer doesn’t have many topics to discuss with a log-hard guest. A person will not suddenly become fascinating after a few sentences.
Not all guests are the same. Some people are more attractive than others, and you need to find them. So, participants’ attraction plays a vital role in making the program attractive. It is a red flag if you don’t want to listen to them yourself.
You need to have a genuine interest in what people do and their personalities. If you focus on your title, the questions will be shallow and superficial.
The good news is that you can use matchmaker.fm to connect with exciting guests. Share your podcast information. The platform will suggest suitable faces.
Research The Background Of Your Subject
Before entering the interview, you need to prepare all the necessary knowledge. The questions won’t be profound if it’s your first exposure to the topic.
Your main job is to introduce the interviewee to the audience. Therefore, you need to learn about them in advance to attract attention.
Finding out the guests is not too difficult when you can find all the information on the Internet. The best option is to visit all of their social networking sites.
In addition, you can learn more about how society thinks about them through articles on Google. It also indicates the online personality of the subject.
Finally, focus on their significant accomplishments like awards or unique work. You indeed wouldn’t be interviewing an ordinary guest.
Prepare The Guest’s Bio
Most subjects will prepare a biography in advance. These include information about your work, achievements, or statements.
Sometimes, they will also include personal projects like songs or books to promote them.
Often they will provide the presenter and the audience with the first few minutes. This section helps us to get acquainted and get basic information about them.
However, these prepared bios are not always perfect. Sometimes they are too long, too short, and even boringly repetitive.
Of course, you don’t want your audience to hear the same information as other interviews. The best way is to prepare a bio for your guests.
Browse social networks and sites related to your audience. Then choose ideas that your audience would like to apply in the proper context.
Satisfy The Audience
The content of this interview should aim to bring helpful information to the listener. So, you need to figure out what your audience is interested in.
Diving into irrelevant and uninteresting topics only wastes your time and energy in vain. While doing your guest research, note the highlights on the list. It will help you figure out what’s important to your audience.
Many social networking sites or forums gather opinions from many people, such as Quora or Reddit. You can find more information here.
Prepare Questions In Advance
Although these factors seem obvious, few people prepare them thoroughly. You won’t need to script the entire conversation, but you should have a list of core questions.
Don’t worry about this list turning the conversation awkward and structured. In fact, it helps hosts manage content, schedule, and time more efficiently.
Tips to help you build the correct list of questions are:
Avoid Yes/No Questions
Yes/no questions restrict the recipient to an extension of the question topic. All they had to do was answer one word, which made the atmosphere somber.
Instead, you should prepare open-ended questions and encourage your listeners to respond with their thoughts.
Don’t Ask Basic Questions.
Personal information about the subject’s occupation, achievements, or projects should be pre-prepared knowledge. If you ask about them, you don’t understand the guest.
Instead, ask approachable questions. You can use their project to base and develop the question.
Avoid Leading Questions
You shouldn’t ask questions that frame the guest’s feelings or thoughts. They will answer them quickly.
For example, the question: “Your feelings at that time must have been awful, right?” You can replace it with: “What was your experience with that incident?”
Focus On “Why” And “How” Questions
These questions will allow you to dig into the guest’s story. Audiences will definitely love this content.
Ask One Question At A Time
Unless the questions are closely related, you shouldn’t ask too many at once. The rush of questions will confuse your audience.
The best way is to keep the conversation going by asking questions one at a time.
Start Carefully
In the list of questions, there will be sentences that attract more attention and interest from the audience. However, it should not be first because it is easy to make the audience lose interest.
Instead, interview a story to allow enough time to know the subject.
Pre-Interview
If you’re recording in person with another person, arrange seats and offer them food and drinks first. One of the keys to a better interview atmosphere is comfort.
This process can be constructive if your audience is not used to appearing in interviews.
Even if you choose to interview remotely, you should know a few things in advance. Provide background information about the program and target audience to get more on-point answers.
You should also double-check the program’s devices. A successful podcast usually has pleasant, high-quality audio.
In addition, context, space, and time are also factors that need to be scripted. If there are any problems, you need to notify them in advance.
Last but not least, you should let your guests know in advance about expected questions. Practicing a preview will make sure your program goes smoothly.
Listen Actively
Interrupting others while talking is a habit that should be broken. It will make the listener feel uncomfortable and offended.
Your only job is to lead them with questions to get feedback. The only exception is when the script goes off track, and you need to interrupt to get everything back on track.
For the most part, your guest should be the center star of the show. In the meantime, you need to be an active and understanding listener.
Your position in an interview is to represent the audience. So, listen attentively and focus as much as you can.
Stay Aware Of Time
The duration of a podcast should only range from 25-45 minutes if you already have enough information and topics. You shouldn’t last more than an hour for an episode.
If the conversation is long but has a lot of exciting content, break it up into small parts. This idea is perfect for professional and meticulous podcasts.
What Questions Should You Ask On A Podcast?
For an interview program, you should prepare a list of pertinent questions to ask the guest in advance. It will help you deepen the story and suggest interesting content.
Refer to the list below and tailor their content to your guests. You should also consider the guest’s personality to choose the most expensive question.
The list of questions includes:
- Tell me a story that touched your heart or changed your soul.
- What’s one meaningful thing you’ve done for someone else that you didn’t realize?
- What would you say to yourself if you could go back in time and meet yourself when you were 18 years old?
- What about yourself inspires you the most?
- What do people misunderstand about you?
- If you had a book that survived hundreds of years later, what would its title and introduction be?
- If you have a billboard of your own, what is its content?
- What is the most important thing you have learned in life, and how has it changed you?
- What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received?
- How would your parents, friends, and society describe your work?
- What would you like to have for your last meal?
These questions will allow guests to open up and share their inner feelings and thoughts. It gives your show much more depth and depth.
Alternatively, you can also take advantage of the following tips to create a list of questions for your podcast interview. They are easy to understand and easy to implement.
- Define the objective of the interview and its primary content.
- Make a list of things your guests are interested in or interested in. You can learn about them carefully in advance.
- Write down what you wonder or want to learn from the guest.
- Think from the listener’s point of view.
- Jot down questions you want to ask your guests.
FAQs
If you still have any questions regarding a podcast interview, continue reading below to find the answers.
How Do You Remote Interview A Podcast?
The geographic distance is used to be an issue that prevented interviews from being conducted. However, the development of the Internet has brought us into a flat world.
You can use some apps or software to conduct a remote interview. Skype is one of the handiest and most remarkable software.
Another advantage of this software is that you can record Skype calls. The biggest drawback is that the sound quality is not very good, even when the network connection is stable.
Fortunately, you still have plenty of other Skype alternatives. Check out the video below to discover them.
What Makes A Good Podcast Interview?
There are many factors to judge the success of a podcast interview. Some qualities include genuine depth and concern, confirmation of facts and misunderstandings, and avoiding awkward moments.
Create a pleasant atmosphere for your guests to open up and share more. If they are still shy, the program will find it challenging to achieve its goals.
What Do You Say To Start A Podcast?
If you still don’t know what to say to start each podcast episode, let’s give an overview. The necessary information includes the program name, subject and value, title, and date if required.
This action helps your audience understand your program and the content you bring. As a result, you will attract potential customers.
Conclusion
We hope this article has helped you learn how to conduct a quality podcast interview. The process may seem confusing and complicated at first, but you’ll get used to it soon enough.
The most important thing is that you need to have an open mind and curiosity to receive new knowledge. When listeners feel comfortable, they will share enthusiastically.
