Best way to get interviews for my blog?
November 3, 2014 9:21 AM Subscribe
I have a personal blog about my day trips to local festivals, museums, landmarks, and whatever else that I think is interesting and fun to explore on the weekends. I live in the USA if that matters. Part of why I'm writing my blog is so that I can improve my skills and confidence as a writer. I'd like to interview interesting people, mostly people affiliated with the places that I'm visiting, but don't know how to best go about this.
1. Should I call ahead of my visit (or perhaps afterwards), explain that I want to interview someone for my blog and hopefully get an interview this way?
2. Should I just approach people when I'm actually visiting? I worry that they might be too busy for me then, since it'd be out of the blue.
3. Is it better for me to interview people in person or does over the phone work okay?
4. If I get an interview, should I use a voice recorder (with their permission obviously) or just stick to pen & paper notes?
I'd appreciate your thoughts about how I might best go about getting interviews for my blog.
1. Should I call ahead of my visit (or perhaps afterwards), explain that I want to interview someone for my blog and hopefully get an interview this way?
2. Should I just approach people when I'm actually visiting? I worry that they might be too busy for me then, since it'd be out of the blue.
3. Is it better for me to interview people in person or does over the phone work okay?
4. If I get an interview, should I use a voice recorder (with their permission obviously) or just stick to pen & paper notes?
I'd appreciate your thoughts about how I might best go about getting interviews for my blog.
Best answer: Almost everywhere you want to go is going to have a person in charge of publicity, press, communications. You find and contact that person. Do not try to ambush-interview people and do not expect press representatives to scramble someone to accommodate a last-minute request.
Record when you can, given that the technology and storage to record is as cheap as free, if you have a smartphone already, or if you decide later you may want to produce a podcast or audio snippets on your blog you may want to drop some cash on a Xoom or similar for field recording. Should you be accused later of misrepresenting something, you'll have the sound file as a record. You may also end up with some good material for follow-up stories or additional research, and notes start losing their recall power pretty quickly.
For the most part, those people are sitting around waiting to be asked, and you are often likely to obtain special access or experiences that you wouldn't if you just went there as a civilian. You may run into the occasional event/institution that doesn't talk to blogs (or won't talk to you because you're not big enough or don't have enough Twitter followers - which is seriously a thing that happens) but you just thank them politely and try them again next year.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:58 AM on November 3, 2014
Record when you can, given that the technology and storage to record is as cheap as free, if you have a smartphone already, or if you decide later you may want to produce a podcast or audio snippets on your blog you may want to drop some cash on a Xoom or similar for field recording. Should you be accused later of misrepresenting something, you'll have the sound file as a record. You may also end up with some good material for follow-up stories or additional research, and notes start losing their recall power pretty quickly.
For the most part, those people are sitting around waiting to be asked, and you are often likely to obtain special access or experiences that you wouldn't if you just went there as a civilian. You may run into the occasional event/institution that doesn't talk to blogs (or won't talk to you because you're not big enough or don't have enough Twitter followers - which is seriously a thing that happens) but you just thank them politely and try them again next year.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:58 AM on November 3, 2014
Best answer: I help organize a festival. If you asked me to do an interview during the event, I would maybe give you five minutes (probably five non-consecutive minutes) and I might be annoyed with you. If you asked me to do an interview outside the busy season, I'd be happy to sit down with you for an hour.
If you really wanted to do the interview during the event (for some reason), I'd have you go through our media liaison, even if (for some reason) I was the person you wanted to interview. If it was outside the busy season, I probably wouldn't care if you contacted me directly.
In short, organizing the festival takes a lot of time, especially in the ~month leading up to it. When I'm on shift during the event, I'm really busy, and when I'm off shift, I'm protective of my free time (and not necessarily 100% off shift).
posted by adamrice at 10:21 AM on November 3, 2014
If you really wanted to do the interview during the event (for some reason), I'd have you go through our media liaison, even if (for some reason) I was the person you wanted to interview. If it was outside the busy season, I probably wouldn't care if you contacted me directly.
In short, organizing the festival takes a lot of time, especially in the ~month leading up to it. When I'm on shift during the event, I'm really busy, and when I'm off shift, I'm protective of my free time (and not necessarily 100% off shift).
posted by adamrice at 10:21 AM on November 3, 2014
Best answer: Given that you're likely reaching out to PR folks, you may want to do a bit of promotion of your blog when you're reaching out to folks. Prepare a nice little summary of your blog, including the general topic and style of your blog, how often you post, and readership and/or follower stats, if that is something you think is strong enough. That will convey that you're taking this seriously, and save them some time in trying to suss this information themselves, if they're at all concerned about that.
You could create a few templates for outreach, depending on the formality and size/status of a location. Local landmarks might be maintained by a few volunteers, while museums have a much more significant staff and structure. Tailor the messages with information that you like about the landmark/museum, and what you might like to learn from an interview.
I would suggest contacting the agency about a month out from your possible visit, to give them time to read and respond to your email, as it may need to get forwarded to some other person/people. You could tell them some dates you had in mind to visit the facility, in case there are events they haven't posted on their website that might conflict or tie up an otherwise available individual. Depending on what you'd like to get from the interview, you could propose interviewing the person before or after visiting the location/event.
Good luck, this sounds like fun! And don't forget you can promote your blog on MetaFilter Projects!
posted by filthy light thief at 10:24 AM on November 3, 2014
You could create a few templates for outreach, depending on the formality and size/status of a location. Local landmarks might be maintained by a few volunteers, while museums have a much more significant staff and structure. Tailor the messages with information that you like about the landmark/museum, and what you might like to learn from an interview.
I would suggest contacting the agency about a month out from your possible visit, to give them time to read and respond to your email, as it may need to get forwarded to some other person/people. You could tell them some dates you had in mind to visit the facility, in case there are events they haven't posted on their website that might conflict or tie up an otherwise available individual. Depending on what you'd like to get from the interview, you could propose interviewing the person before or after visiting the location/event.
Good luck, this sounds like fun! And don't forget you can promote your blog on MetaFilter Projects!
posted by filthy light thief at 10:24 AM on November 3, 2014
Best answer: As a writer, my experience has taught me the following:
Definitely call or e-mail ahead. If for whatever reason you can't reach anyone ahead of time, you can approach the communications/PR office when you're there, but as you said, since it's out of the blue there's no guarantee that anyone will be available. At the same time, it's harder to say no to someone who's in front of you, and if they're too busy at the time, you can make arrangements to interview them at a later date.
As a rule, I think most people prefer in-person interviews, but that's not always realistic. Over-the-phone or Skype interviews are also valid forms of interviewing people.
As far as your last question- I think this is really a matter of personal preference. I will say that it saves a lot of time if you can take notes while the interview is going on, instead of going back and listening to a recording.
Good luck!
posted by Enchanting Grasshopper at 3:01 AM on November 4, 2014
Definitely call or e-mail ahead. If for whatever reason you can't reach anyone ahead of time, you can approach the communications/PR office when you're there, but as you said, since it's out of the blue there's no guarantee that anyone will be available. At the same time, it's harder to say no to someone who's in front of you, and if they're too busy at the time, you can make arrangements to interview them at a later date.
As a rule, I think most people prefer in-person interviews, but that's not always realistic. Over-the-phone or Skype interviews are also valid forms of interviewing people.
As far as your last question- I think this is really a matter of personal preference. I will say that it saves a lot of time if you can take notes while the interview is going on, instead of going back and listening to a recording.
Good luck!
posted by Enchanting Grasshopper at 3:01 AM on November 4, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
1) Yes, call the communications person (or other available contact) before you do your interview. Obviously, you're not likely going to get the president of the museum (or whatever), but PR people generally like to help and want more visibility for their client. While some will surely freeze you out, PR people can get you access to people and places you would not have as a member of the public.
2) Maybe? With an established institution (like a museum), interviews would generally all be scheduled through the communications people, and randomly interviewing someone in their official capacity could get you booted, and could get your interview subject in trouble. Of course, you could just interview a passerby, though the institution may look unfavorably on you doing that on their property. Generally, the press check in with someone before doing reportage.
3) either is fine, though having been interviewed, done interviews, and observed interviews, I think in person produces better, livelier results than over the phone.
4) When I did interviews, I preferred a recorder, because I could give my subject undivided attention, rather than furiously scribbling (though I did that on occasion too). My advice would be 1) be sure to get consent for the recording ON THE RECORDING and 2) get a recorder you can "set and forget"--turn it on, put it on the table, don't touch it again. Don't get one that you need to (or feel you need to) move back and forth to capture each side of the interview. It's very distracting and makes people self conscious.
Good luck.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 9:35 AM on November 3, 2014 [2 favorites]