How well do you know your interviewer?
It always pays to know at least a bit about the reporter, the show, the blog, the station, etc. before you go into an interview. Here’s how internet marketing expert David Erickson prepped for a recent radio interview:
Considering the topic, I did some online research about her and learned a great deal about the reporter. I discovered plenty of news stories she’d produced, so I got a feel for what she was interested in professionally. I learned where she had gone to college, some of her attitudes about college, that she is very smart because she’d been awarded some fellowships to work abroad, so I also knew where she had traveled. I found a full color photograph of her.
Further, from the information I found, I could also deduce her age and her income. I had essentially built a fairly comprehensive demographic and psychographic profile of this reporter.
Now, to be fair, Erickson was doing the interview about online reputations and the reporter had asked that she be scrutinized for her reputation. Still, it shows how much you can fairly easily dig up about people nowadays through the web. There are no excuses any more for not knowing something about your interviewer.
Posted: October 11th, 2007 under Guest Experiences, Media Interview Preparation, Technology and Media Interviews.