Name: 'Think like a journalist': How to create epic interview-based content
Uploaded: 2022-03-30T14:00:38.876Z
Duration: 907.27
Description: Interviews can be a great way of producing content. But Bernie Borges says interviewing is the crypto of content marketing - few people do it well, but those who do make huge gains. He delves into the details on how to craft epic interview-based content.

Bernie Borges video preview.mp4

Think like a journalist.vtt

English

{{00:00:19}}
The process that I'm going
to share with you, the best

{{00:00:20}}
practices the techniques for
interviewing are based on a podcast.

{{00:00:25}}
However, if you don't have a podcast,
you can still apply these principles

{{00:00:30}}
to whatever your media property is.

{{00:00:32}}
A newsletter, a magazine, a case study.

{{00:00:35}}
And you'll see some other types of
media formats that are available,

{{00:00:38}}
which as content marketers you're
probably already doing anyway.

{{00:00:41}}
So the point is that you can
apply these principles, but you're

{{00:00:43}}
going to hear me discuss them
within the context of a podcast.

{{00:00:48}}
The interviewer should
have some authority, some

{{00:01:00}}
knowledge, some experience.

{{00:01:01}}
And I would argue some expertise
on the topic that he or she

{{00:01:05}}
is interviewing someone on.

{{00:01:08}}
Likewise, the interviewer should
care about that topic and show

{{00:01:13}}
some compassion and excitement
and enthusiasm for that topic.

{{00:01:17}}
And also the interviewer
needs to be organised.

{{00:01:21}}
I'm here to say that it takes a village
to do this, to conduct the interviews.

{{00:01:26}}
And the interviewer also needs
to be perceived as reliable.

{{00:01:29}}
There's a lot of things you're going
to be covering with the person that

{{00:01:32}}
you're interviewing, so make sure that
you deliver on every promise that you

{{00:01:36}}
make, that you're on time and that
you are not breaking any promises.

{{00:01:40}}
Now, when you have these four
attributes in place, as the interviewer

{{00:01:44}}
with your interviewee, you are
going to be viewed as trustworthy.

{{00:01:49}}
And that is the ultimate
goal with the interviewee.

{{00:01:53}}
The person that you're interviewing,
is that they trust you because you have

{{00:01:57}}
all these other attributes in place.

{{00:01:59}}
But here's my point.

{{00:02:00}}
I recommend that you do like I do, and
that is be a student of interviewers.

{{00:02:06}}
Not only do I study what other
people do on podcasts who are

{{00:02:11}}
good interviewers, I study
interviewers on TV, with shows

{{00:02:15}}
like 60 Minutes as an example.

{{00:02:17}}
I study their interviewing techniques.

{{00:02:19}}
I'm watching everything, their
body language, their approach,

{{00:02:23}}
how they go back and forth.

{{00:02:24}}
Right.

{{00:02:25}}
So become a student of the interview
process wherever and whenever you can.

{{00:02:36}}
How do you select the people
that you're going to interview?

{{00:02:41}}
I'm going to call them interviewees.

{{00:02:43}}
Sometimes I'll call them SMEs or
subject matter experts or SMEs.

{{00:02:47}}
So one of the things that you
want to do, if you're going to

{{00:02:50}}
be interviewing people inside the
company is collaborate with the

{{00:02:53}}
stakeholders who are the managers
of the people who are potential

{{00:02:58}}
candidates for you to interview.

{{00:02:59}}
Ask questions like, hey, who's
really shining in your organisation?

{{00:03:02}}
Who's done something creative?

{{00:03:04}}
Who's taken some risk?

{{00:03:05}}
Who's just done something that really
got your attention, who is really the

{{00:03:09}}
most respected person on your team?

{{00:03:11}}
The other thing is to also network
internally, I've done a lot of that.

{{00:03:15}}
And then also look outside
your company, customers,

{{00:03:18}}
prospects, influencers.

{{00:03:20}}
Now the difference though is
when you start interviewing

{{00:03:23}}
people outside your company.

{{00:03:24}}
The focus is a little bit different
than it is when you're interviewing

{{00:03:27}}
people inside the company.

{{00:03:29}}
People outside your company, you want
to give them a platform that allows

{{00:03:33}}
them to showcase their expertise.

{{00:03:36}}
And the other way that I find people
to interview is within social media.

{{00:03:41}}
Even within our own social media,
the employees that are engaging in

{{00:03:44}}
our social media found three or four
people that we've interviewed for

{{00:03:49}}
the podcast, just by checking out who
are the employees that are actually

{{00:03:52}}
engaging with our social media.

{{00:03:57}}
When you've decided that you want to
interview someone, don't say I would

{{00:04:07}}
like to interview you for X, Y, and Z.

{{00:04:10}}
Do say, I want to feature you.

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I want to showcase you.

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Words matter.

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You're marketers, you know that.

{{00:04:19}}
Invite them to a prep call.

{{00:04:22}}
This is the biggest thing that I've
learned in my seven plus years of

{{00:04:25}}
conducting interviews to create
content, is always, always, always,

{{00:04:30}}
always have a prep call with the
person that you're going to interview.

{{00:04:35}}
And on that prep call, I'm going
to dive deeper into that, you're

{{00:04:37}}
going to set up everything
you need for the interview.

{{00:04:41}}
Once you get them on that
prep call, make sure that they

{{00:04:44}}
understand what your vision is.

{{00:04:46}}
Clearly communicate the vision of the
content that you're out to produce

{{00:04:50}}
and make sure they're aligned with it.

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Make sure they're bought into it.

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That's your job as the interviewer.

{{00:04:56}}
And then during that conversation,
that prep call, capture all

{{00:05:00}}
the talking points, literally
write them down, document them.

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Let's get to what I really
considered to be the most

{{00:05:14}}
important part of this process.

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It's not the interview itself.

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It's the prep call
before the interview.

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And here's how I approach it.

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The first thing I do is
I prepare to prepare.

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So explain what I mean by that.

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Before I actually sit down with the
interviewee, I do my homework on them.

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I looked them up on LinkedIn.

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I looked them up on other social media.

{{00:05:37}}
I may talk to someone internally who
maybe made the referral to that person.

{{00:05:41}}
I'll get whatever insight I
can on that person so that I

{{00:05:45}}
come to that meeting prepared.

{{00:05:47}}
However, I'm going to ask that
person the following question,

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please tell me your story.

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How did you get to the
role that you're in now?

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How did you get to be
known for X, Y, and Z?

{{00:06:04}}
And then I'm going to sit
back and I'm going to listen,

{{00:06:06}}
and I am going to take notes.

{{00:06:08}}
I'm going to tell them that I'm taking
notes so they don't think I'm doing

{{00:06:11}}
email, but take copious notes, but
listen, just focus on their story.

{{00:06:17}}
And if you have to pull it out
of them, ask more questions.

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Then what happened?

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Why did you do that?

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What problems did you encounter?

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You want to ask that question because
you want to find conflict in their

{{00:06:28}}
story, because then you want to
know how they overcame that conflict

{{00:06:31}}
and became the hero of their story.

{{00:06:34}}
And then at the end of that prep
call, what you need to do is you

{{00:06:38}}
need to tell this individual what the
story is that we're going to tell.

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Let's get now to the
actual interview itself.

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First of all, make it really
obvious that it's all about the

{{00:07:00}}
guest, the SME, the interviewee,
the person you're interviewing.

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Shine the spotlight on that person
throughout the entire process.

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Make sure they feel special, like you
are really out to showcase their story.

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Review the talking points that you
agreed upon from the prep call.

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Make sure that nothing's changed.

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Give them a chance to actually
come back and revisit them.

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Maybe there's a few things
that have come into play.

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Now, let me make this other point.

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The interview itself is not the
same day as the interview prep call.

{{00:07:33}}
You need a little bit of
time, like bare minimum one

{{00:07:36}}
to two days, bare minimum.

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I recommend more like
three to seven days later.

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Give that story some time to
really process in your head

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and in the person's head,
make sure you are showing to

{{00:07:48}}
them that you are in control.

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You've got this, you
know what you're doing.

{{00:07:52}}
You've got a process down.

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So take charge of that interview.

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And I recommend that you budget
on average of about an hour

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for the actual interview.

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This also allows you to do a dry run.

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I love the dry run.

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Here's why the end of the.

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It could have been nailed.

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Like you could just, you
could be done at that point.

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Right?

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Like they just nailed it.

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The preparation paid
off and it's nailed.

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It's perfect.

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Right.

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That's one possible scenario.

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Another scenario is,
okay, let's tweak this.

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Let's tweak that maybe let's not go
down this path or maybe let's tighten

{{00:08:28}}
up this section here, meaning that
you learn something from the dry run

{{00:08:33}}
and you need to make some tweaks.

{{00:08:35}}
But they're still going
to be more relaxed when

{{00:08:37}}
you're doing the second one.

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And you know what, if you need to
do a third one, do a third one.

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I don't want to surprise my
interviewee with anything.

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So I'm always going to tell them
everything that I expect from them.

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For example, we do a video interview
and I say, look at the end of the

{{00:08:53}}
interview when I wrap it up and I close
it up and it's going to be obvious,

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you're going to know when I close it
up, I want you to do the following.

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I want you to stare at the
camera for five seconds.

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And I tell him why we're going to
use that as the thumbnail image.

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Cause we're both staring at
the camera and smiling, right.

{{00:09:11}}
But don't tell them that in the
interview, tell them beforehand,

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whatever it is that you need
from them, tell them in advance.

{{00:09:18}}
And then say, all right, I also want
you to know that if you want to do a do

{{00:09:23}}
over during the interview, just raise
your hand or something and just say,

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hey, can we do that question again?

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No problem.

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That's what editing's all about.

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Once you've conducted the interview,
now it's about producing the content.

{{00:09:37}}
And I think these points here I
think are pretty obvious to a room

{{00:09:41}}
full of marketers, specifically
content marketers, right?

{{00:09:44}}
In this case, we're producing
video, and this has been covered

{{00:09:48}}
in several other sessions that I've
attended, we're also producing audio.

{{00:09:53}}
We're also producing long
form narrative content, namely

{{00:09:56}}
a blog post, and we're also
producing multiple images.

{{00:10:00}}
So the idea behind that is
to conduct one interview and

{{00:10:03}}
to be able to create lots of
different content assets from it.

{{00:10:07}}
And that concept is known
as atomising content.

{{00:10:10}}
So atomising content in our case,
what we do is we'll take things

{{00:10:13}}
like a quote or several quotes from
the interviewee and we'll create

{{00:10:18}}
social media images from that.

{{00:10:20}}
And then, so we'll also create
excerpts 30, 45, 60 second excerpts.

{{00:10:26}}
And we'll use those excerpts in
a variety of different ways, most

{{00:10:29}}
notably to amplify the content, share
the content on social media and this

{{00:10:34}}
way we've got lots of content assets
again, using that eight to one ratio.

{{00:10:40}}
I want to talk about the value
of interview-based content.

{{00:10:49}}
I've got a few slides on this because
there's a lot of different value.

{{00:10:52}}
First of all, we're talking about
storytelling and there's been a lot of

{{00:10:56}}
discussion here at Content Marketing
World about storytelling and the power

{{00:11:00}}
of storytelling, especially when it's
done consistently and it's done in a

{{00:11:04}}
way that really follows the buyer's
journey, but in our case, we're telling

{{00:11:09}}
a lot of stories about our employees.

{{00:11:11}}
So people love seeing that content
and this content can be evergreen.

{{00:11:15}}
And by evergreen, that means you can
amplify it and you can promote it for a

{{00:11:19}}
long time and I'm talking a year plus.

{{00:11:23}}
And then the last, but certainly
not least is relationship-building.

{{00:11:29}}
Now you might say relationship-building
well, that's kind of obvious.

{{00:11:32}}
The relationship building when it
comes to internal employees is huge.

{{00:11:35}}
Remember I mentioned that one
of our challenges is recruiting

{{00:11:38}}
and retaining employees.

{{00:11:39}}
That's huge.

{{00:11:40}}
There's a lot of poaching
that goes on in our industry.

{{00:11:43}}
And so when we showcase our
employees, we're building

{{00:11:46}}
a relationship with them.

{{00:11:48}}
There's more benefits to
interview-based content, and

{{00:11:51}}
that is the impact on the brand,
which you can measure both

{{00:11:54}}
quantitatively and qualitatively.

{{00:11:58}}
But you can also do lead
generation from this.

{{00:12:00}}
You know, I mentioned you can
interview customers and prospects

{{00:12:03}}
and I said, when you interview
customers and prospects make sure

{{00:12:07}}
you're giving them a platform to talk
about a topic that they are expert

{{00:12:10}}
at and they're passionate about.

{{00:12:12}}
And it may not even be
relevant to your business.

{{00:12:14}}
It might be that they're on a board
of a charity and you're giving them a

{{00:12:19}}
platform to talk about this charity.

{{00:12:23}}
It may have nothing to do with
your business, but that interview

{{00:12:28}}
and that content could be huge
in the relationship building

{{00:12:31}}
that you do with that customer or
that prospect or that influencer.

{{00:12:35}}
And then as I mentioned already,
a few times, it can contribute to

{{00:12:39}}
employee retention and recruiting.

{{00:12:44}}
I want to offer you some things
that you can think about and

{{00:12:46}}
how you can be doing this.

{{00:12:48}}
Number one, start with what's the
problem you're trying to solve?

{{00:12:53}}
And if you don't like the
word problem, what's the goal?

{{00:12:56}}
What's the goal that you're setting
out to accomplish when you're

{{00:12:59}}
interviewing people to create content?

{{00:13:01}}
Who cares about this
problem or this goal?

{{00:13:05}}
Make sure you know who they are and
don't stop until you've identified

{{00:13:10}}
all the quote unquote stakeholders.

{{00:13:13}}
If you leave someone out, you're
at risk of not getting buy-in.

{{00:13:19}}
That's why the next step is
you've got to sell this idea.

{{00:13:22}}
You've got to make sure that all
the stakeholders who care about this

{{00:13:26}}
problem or goal that you've identified,
that they are in alignment, they're in

{{00:13:31}}
agreement that you're going to start
interviewing subject matter experts and

{{00:13:35}}
creating content to achieve this goal.

{{00:13:38}}
You've got to get that buy-in.

{{00:13:40}}
And without that, you could be
going down a path where you're

{{00:13:43}}
going to put a lot of work in only
to potentially hit a brick wall.

{{00:13:47}}
So this is super important.

{{00:13:49}}
And then if necessary, or if
you think it's a good idea,

{{00:13:52}}
launch a proof of concept.

{{00:13:56}}
And a proof of concept is as you
probably know, basically to trial.

{{00:14:00}}
And then lastly, think
like a journalist.

{{00:14:06}}
Why?

{{00:14:07}}
Because the job of a
journalist is to tell a story.

{{00:14:11}}
And I want to come back to
something that I said early in

{{00:14:15}}
this presentation and that is
that you are telling a story.

{{00:14:18}}
And when you're interviewing people,
find the conflict, find the challenges

{{00:14:24}}
that they had in their story and
make sure that you're pulling that

{{00:14:30}}
out and it's part of the story.

{{00:14:32}}
Because that's what a story is about.

{{00:14:35}}
If a story doesn't have a beginning,
a middle and an end, and somewhere

{{00:14:40}}
in that middle, there's a conflict
that was overcome, then that

{{00:14:43}}
story isn't very interesting.

{{00:14:46}}
Interviewing is the cryptocurrency
of content marketing because

{{00:14:52}}
very few are doing it well, but
those who are are killing it.

The process that I'm going
to share with you, the best

practices the techniques for
interviewing are based on a podcast.

However, if you don't have a podcast,
you can still apply these principles

And you'll see some other types of
media formats that are available,

which as content marketers you're
probably already doing anyway.

So the point is that you can
apply these principles, but you're

going to hear me discuss them
within the context of a podcast.

The interviewer should
have some authority, some

And I would argue some expertise
on the topic that he or she

Likewise, the interviewer should
care about that topic and show

some compassion and excitement
and enthusiasm for that topic.

And also the interviewer
needs to be organised.

I'm here to say that it takes a village
to do this, to conduct the interviews.

And the interviewer also needs
to be perceived as reliable.

There's a lot of things you're going
to be covering with the person that

you're interviewing, so make sure that
you deliver on every promise that you

make, that you're on time and that
you are not breaking any promises.

Now, when you have these four
attributes in place, as the interviewer

with your interviewee, you are
going to be viewed as trustworthy.

And that is the ultimate
goal with the interviewee.

The person that you're interviewing,
is that they trust you because you have

I recommend that you do like I do, and
that is be a student of interviewers.

Not only do I study what other
people do on podcasts who are

good interviewers, I study
interviewers on TV, with shows

I'm watching everything, their
body language, their approach,

So become a student of the interview
process wherever and whenever you can.

How do you select the people
that you're going to interview?

Sometimes I'll call them SMEs or
subject matter experts or SMEs.

So one of the things that you
want to do, if you're going to

be interviewing people inside the
company is collaborate with the

stakeholders who are the managers
of the people who are potential

Ask questions like, hey, who's
really shining in your organisation?

Who's just done something that really
got your attention, who is really the

The other thing is to also network
internally, I've done a lot of that.

And then also look outside
your company, customers,

Now the difference though is
when you start interviewing

The focus is a little bit different
than it is when you're interviewing

People outside your company, you want
to give them a platform that allows

And the other way that I find people
to interview is within social media.

Even within our own social media,
the employees that are engaging in

our social media found three or four
people that we've interviewed for

the podcast, just by checking out who
are the employees that are actually

When you've decided that you want to
interview someone, don't say I would

This is the biggest thing that I've
learned in my seven plus years of

conducting interviews to create
content, is always, always, always,

always have a prep call with the
person that you're going to interview.

And on that prep call, I'm going
to dive deeper into that, you're

going to set up everything
you need for the interview.

Once you get them on that
prep call, make sure that they

Clearly communicate the vision of the
content that you're out to produce

And then during that conversation,
that prep call, capture all

the talking points, literally
write them down, document them.

Let's get to what I really
considered to be the most

The first thing I do is
I prepare to prepare.

Before I actually sit down with the
interviewee, I do my homework on them.

I may talk to someone internally who
maybe made the referral to that person.

I'll get whatever insight I
can on that person so that I

However, I'm going to ask that
person the following question,

How did you get to the
role that you're in now?

How did you get to be
known for X, Y, and Z?

And then I'm going to sit
back and I'm going to listen,

Best Practice

Interviews can be a great way of producing content. But Bernie Borges says interviewing is the crypto of content marketing - few people do it well, but those who do make huge gains. He delves into the details on how to craft epic interview-based content. 

Content Creation

Content Atomisation

Podcasts

Interviews

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Bernie Borges

VP Global Content Marketing

Finding the right person to interview is one of the keys to the success of your content. Borges looks at the potential methods of finding the right candidate and what traits will help you be a successful interviewer.

Interviewer versus interviewee

The most critical thing you can do for your content is to focus and prepare for your prep call. This step-by-step guide will help you explore what professional interviewers should do pre-interview and during the interview.

Stages of an interview

Your content marketing efforts can be optimised by atomising your content to cover more ground with less effort than making brand-new campaigns from scratch every time.

Producing the content

The more value you deliver to your customers and employees, the more you achieve in brand equity or employee retention and more. Borges explains the long-term values you can achieve with interview-based content.

Creating value with your content

Do you like to create your own interview-based content? Discover how to do it in five simple steps. 