{"id":3434,"date":"2014-07-18T21:32:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T21:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossoceanfund.com\/?p=3434"},"modified":"2023-03-09T00:18:47","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T00:18:47","slug":"how-to-use-interviews-to-improve-your-corporate-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossoceanfund.com\/how-to-use-interviews-to-improve-your-corporate-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Use Interviews to Improve Your Corporate Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Managing a blog isn\u2019t always easy. Fresh content doesn\u2019t just pop out of the ground or fall out of the sky. It takes work. You have to constantly be looking for things to blog about or looking for fresh insights and fresh ways of presenting content to people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the best ways you can do this is by interviewing people for your blog. Doing interviews for your blog will provide you with new content and give you perspectives that you never thought of before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, we haven\u2019t actually featured any interviews on this blog, but we\u2019ve done some for other blogs we manage and they\u2019ve all been well received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t take my biased word for it, though. Daniella Rodriguez, assistant manager of BakersBodega<\/a>, the Premier Bakery Cash & Carry Warehouse in Pico Rivera, California, knows the power of interviews on that company\u2019s blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt makes us look more professional and I think the interviewees feel like they\u2019re more appreciated,\u201d Rodriguez said during a recent interview. \u201cThey become loyal customers and our relationship gets better with them. They share the interview link with their followers on Instagram and Twitter and they ask their followers to start following us. And usually, their followers will start following us right away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rodriguez estimates that after an interview post is published on the company\u2019s blog, they\u2019ll get anywhere from 200 \u2013 500 new Instagram followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt least a quarter of our followers come from the interviews,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BakersBodega has been fortunate to be able to feature some minor local celebrities on its blog, like The Cake Mamas<\/a>, who won an episode of Cupcake Wars<\/a>. Customers who have seen these interviewees on TV can even be a little starstruck that someone they\u2019ve seen on TV shops there, Rodriguez noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The store has also featured numerous local small bakery shops<\/a> and at-home cake shops<\/a>. And when customers read the interviews done with these small business owners, they get inspired at how they started out small, but have been able to grow their businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to that, the interviewees continually mention the BakersBodega blog weeks and months after their interviews have been published, Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s part of the beauty of interviewing people for your blog, particularly business people. They\u2019ll be so thankful for the exposure that they\u2019ll continue to point people in the direction of your business long after the post has been published. (I believe these are known as brownie points in the business.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can grow the sharing opportunities exponentially by also sharing it with any other companies that the interviewee mentions (such as brands they like or tools they use etc.) They are great to share in your email newsletter so other clients\/partners\/vendors see them and may even inquire about being interviewed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interviews usually provide good content for your site keyword-wise. We find most of the interviews we post for clients end up being one of the top blog posts for that month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who should you interview?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customers are an obvious choice, but vendors, suppliers and business partners are all good choices, too. Everyone has an opinion to share and most people like sharing them, especially when they\u2019re getting exposure to a new audience (your followers and readers). They will most likely feel honored that you want to interview them and will share it however they can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when they share the interview post with their followers, your business gets exposure to their network, which means potential sales leads for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Influential people within your industry are another lucrative group to interview. We manage a blog for construction software company ProEst<\/a>, so we interviewed Carol Hagen<\/a>, who is widely known within the industry for being a construction software expert. We asked her about what emerging trends she\u2019s seen in the construction industry and how much software has changed throughout her 20+ career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hagen isn\u2019t connected to ProEst in any way, but she has recommended the software to people. The point with interviewing her, though, was that her reputation within the industry means she\u2019s highly influential, which translates to a lot of people following her and wanting to know what she\u2019s saying. The fact that she\u2019s saying it on the ProEst blog makes people want to check it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, of course, these influential people will share the blog link with their followers, which tends to be lucrative because, being so influential in the industry, they will have a lot of followers. It can result in good link authority for SEO purposes, but also bring real traffic and recognition to your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interviewing Tips<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n