I had a successful podcast where I utilized interviews a lot. It was so beneficial to my content creation process and I’m really excited to begin implementing it on Facebook Live. I think there are a lot of aspects of conducting interviews that reaches across platforms. Whether you’re using recorded video, podcasts or Facebook Live, there are a lot of similarities.
As I mentioned before, utilizing interviews is a great and easy way to create new content. Or even reimagine old content in a different format. However, the greatest benefit of utilizing interviews is that they allow you and your guest to share your audiences with each other… essentially broadening your reach on social media. Some people get a little weary about this and mistakenly think they might lose people if their audience prefers their guest. But I have to say, I’ve never had that experience and neither have any of my guests. I’ve only seen it benefit both party’s exposure.
As with any good content, you need to have a plan of attack. If you’ve never interviewed anyone before, here is an easy list of 8 steps that will help your interview and video have a nice flow.
Facebook Live Interviewing Tips for Network Marketers
- Always have an introduction for your show. Introduce yourself, your show, your guest and the topic.
- After you’ve introduced your guest and the topic, you should edify your guest. Meaning, you should give the audience some information about your guest that makes the audience recognize them as an expert on the topic of discussion.
- Have an opening question for your guest. Consider the topic and come up with a pre-determined question that you can jump into right away. For example, if you are doing a video on parenting, your opening question could be, “If you could give a new parent only one piece of advice, what would it be?”
- Have 5-10 pre-determined questions available. Do some research on the person you are interviewing and ask them specific questions that you’ve pre-determined about their experience, opinions or expertise.
- Don’t be locked into what you’ve planned. Interviews should appear to the audience as a natural conversation. If your guest gives a really interesting answer to a question and you want to dive deeper, go for it!
- Have a closing question. My closing question is usually some variation of the same question that I ask all my guests. For example, “I’ve loved having you here and hearing your experience and tips on parenting. What would you say is the biggest lesson you’ve learned since becoming a parent?”
- Have a closing statement. Close out the video with a concise statement that sums up the discussion and cleanly closes out the video.
- Let your guest promote. If they have something exciting going on or a product they are pushing, let them talk about it! Think about it, when have you EVER seen a celebrity on a late-night show who didn’t have something they were promoting?!
Once you’ve figured out your interview flow, you need to practice! If you are going live from your like page and are using software like belive.tv or zoom.us, you need to make sure you know how to work the software before you try doing a live interview. Create a private group where you can work out the kinks. Don’t be shy about inviting a close trusted friend to your private group and practice interviewing them. You can plan your little heart out but without practice, you may just end up looking foolish.
