It’s my bet that most of you wish you had more visitors to your blogs or websites. It’s also my bet that you’re not taking advantage of things you might be able to possibly do to help get your name out to the masses. What am I talking about?
I like to add interviews to my blog, whether they’re written interviews or video interviews. The reason I like doing them is because I think it adds a new dimension to my websites in general, as well as helps expand my presence in social media.
Right now I have 4 requests out to people who said they’d do the interview for me. I sent them the questions and I’m waiting… and waiting… and waiting. I had two people actually follow through on this, one for my local blog (who I also interviewed here, the other by my buddy Brian Hawkins, who also came through with a video interview.
On the first one, the guy asked me to interview him, and since I know him pretty well I did, and he did a little promotion and that was it. Brian came to the page, addressed all the people who commented on it, and even held a contest on his own blog in trying to help promote it. That was kind of neat and it proved a point.
Too many people lament that no one knows who they are, but they don’t step forward to handle the easiest things to help them along. Things like responding to comments on their blogs, writing comments on other blogs, promoting their missives or interviews on Twitter or LinkedIn or Facebook… Just asking, but how many of you have the link to your websites or blogs in your email signature? Yeah, I thought so.
This isn’t an invitation for you to write me asking me to interview you; truthfully, if you do that I’m ignoring it. I’ll ask those who I want to interview if I can do it. However, I’m always available for an interview because I know I can use it for “my” greater good.
Back in June I wrote another post about lessons learned via an interview I did with Cairn Rodriguez and I also shared the video. I followed that up last October later by sharing my own interview with Meloney Hall in a post talking about blogging and social media marketing. Meloney also interviewed me and posted it to her blog, which I found pretty cool, and I keep sharing that interview of me and other interviews I’ve done with others multiple times because, after all, they’re all a great representation of me.
The thing is that you have to be willing to at least try to do something for yourself if you’re looking to get known or to make money. People aren’t just going to find you; well, maybe they will, but if they don’t know you then why would they buy from you? What better way to help promote yourself than to be found on someone else’s digital real estate?
However, this post isn’t about you yourself all that much; it’s about adding someone else’s interview to your digital real estate. You’re probably thinking “I don’t want to promote anyone else on my page”. Trust me, you’re missing the point. How? Five points below:
1. Interviewing someone who does what you do can help confirm that you know what you’re talking about.
Strange as it might seem, some people who read what you have to say might not fully trust you, especially if they’re unsure of what you’re talking about. However, if someone else comes along and says the same type of thing, you start looking smarter. If you don’t believe this one just tell your spouse something, then have them ask someone else the same question. lol
2. Interviewing someone about aspects of what you do that you don’t talk about often helps highlight just how comprehensive what you do can be.
I did a podcast interview with a guy who does some group leadership training in Florida. In that interview I brought up some things that he himself doesn’t do, but he got it and helped to enhance it with his own words. It makes him look strong because even if he didn’t know anything about what I was saying up front his comment helped to show others just how difficult leadership training can be.
3. Sometimes you can interview someone who was a client and have them tell others how you helped them.
Talk about a coup! All of us in business have some sort of testimonials but you want to know a truth? I know quite a few people who actually write the testimonials themselves and then have someone sign them, making them authentic. Frankly that’s dismaying, and yet I’ve had the opportunity to do the same thing; I just couldn’t do it. However, having someone like that do a video testimonial while it being in the form of an interview… can you think of anything better to help enhance your business?
4. Interviewing someone on the fringe of what you do or are interested in can show you have some depth, thus showing you can be flexible.
I have done some social media consulting here and there. What I find is that depending on who you talk to they always think you talk about only one thing, yet each person has their own thing they’re thinking about. So when I’ve done interviews with other people I’ve expanded the conversation by having them talk about social media platforms in general, and invariably they’ll always bring up something I don’t use or I’m not signed up on. I’ve also interviewed people who have blogs but don’t consider themselves as bloggers; for instance one lady is a lawyer, another a 3D digital artist for media outlets.
5. This is the biggie; you have a major marketing tool that you can use over and over in multiple places. I’ve used my interviews on my blogs. Obviously the video interviews are on YouTube, but then I can embed them in blog posts and share them on every social media platform I have. I can also send links to people via email and, if I so chose to do, I could send out a link in traditional marketing mail and post cards.
There you go; how many times do I have to initiate conversation about interviews, giving them or interviewing others, before you’re ready to take the plunge? Maybe this will help some:
