Interviews have a lot of potential as videos for social media, and could engage viewers extremely effectively. However in order for that to happen you need to carefully plan your interviews and create the kind of interviews that viewers want to see.
While there are many steps involved in arranging interviews and you shouldn't ignore any of them, there are some areas that you should especially focus on to make sure your interview videos are engaging:
- Find the right subject to interview about the right topic
It should go without saying but if you want your interview to engage viewers, it needs to be about a topic that they're interested in. On top of that the subject that you're interviewing should be the right person to discuss that topic - both in terms of their experience and expertise as well as their potential to resonate with viewers.
- Try to have a conversation - not ask questions
All too often interviews end up being a Q&A session, which isn't bad but it isn't as engaging as an actual conversation would be. As the interviewer it is up to you to try to phrase your questions as part of a natural conversation, so that the subject will respond in kind.
Ideally you should prepare all your questions in advance, and vet them as well as prepare follow-ups as well to keep the conversational flow going.
- Stay on topic and keep the video focused
While conducting the interview you should try to stay on topic as much as possible - unless you think a tangent is relevant or going to be interesting to viewers. Although you may not want to interrupt the subject directly, you can steer them back on topic via the questions that you ask.
At the end of the day viewers are watching your video expecting it to cover a certain interview topic, and may not like it if you deviate too far from that.
- Find good B-roll footage to cut into the video
One of the problems with interviews is that it can get boring watching a person sitting and talking - no matter how interesting the content itself may be. To mix things up a little you should try to find good B-roll footage that you can cutaway to at certain points.
The B-roll footage that you use should be related to what is being said in the interview, and can be used to give it context. For example if the subject is talking about a growing trend in social media viewers, you can bring up a graph or video showing that trend in action.
- Edit the video to keep it short and direct
Social media viewers tend to prefer short videos that they can watch quickly, and you should take account of that when you're editing the video. To keep the video short you can cut out unwanted parts, and move it along more quickly.
Using direct jump cuts may be jarring and interrupt the flow of the video, in which case you could try to cutaway to B-roll footage to mask it.
If you have difficulty scheduling a face-to-face interview with subjects, remember you can always conduct it via a video call and use desktop recording software such as Movavi Screen Capture Studio to record the footage that you need. Assuming you try this option just make sure the subject has a good webcam or smartphone so the quality of the video call is good.
Make it a point to try the tips listed above the next time you want to come up with an interview video for social media - and see what a difference it makes.
