Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Internet Radio Interview Tips for Podcasters



Here's some good advice from BlogTalkRadio on interviewing people on an internet radio podcast show. I'd add "Don't waste time joking around and jabbering about trivial nonsense. Get right to the meat of the topic so your audience gains value immediately."


It's fine to spend a few moments loosening up with random talk about the weather or favorite sitcoms. "Are you disappointed about The Office ending? Do you hope The Farm with Dwight Shrute will be a spin-off show?" might be a great opening just to get the ball rolling.

But often the bantering back and forth is tedious, prolonged, and not very funny.

I've listened to a lot of tech interview podcasts where I got absolutely nothing out of them. 

Questions were fluffy stupid junk like "What is your biggest wish?" or "What part of the country do you like best?" when the person being interviewed was a CEO of a tech company and MAY have had some interesting insights and expertise to share.

The big mistake a lot of internet radio tech shows make is acting goofy and trying to tie in with pop culture. If we want pop culture we'll tune into Entertainment Tonight or Jay Leno or The View. 

Trying to be hip and trendy and cool is usually an exercise in futility. You may attract large numbers of fans, but they'll tend to be dumbed down and won't understand the technical discussions that you eventually get to in your show.

If you think your audience is brain dead, by all means yak about frivolous garbage. 

But if you have intelligent fans and want to provide them with good information, valuable tips, and deep insight, stick to smart questions that will hopefully provoke smart replies.


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