5 Ways to Help Real People Tell Your Brand Story

The art of storytelling is alive and well—with more new channels than ever for telling your corporate or nonprofit brand story on audio and/or video. And one of the best resources for telling that story is real people. Whether you need to interview your boss for a podcast or put important donors on camera explaining why they care about your mission, real people can convey your story with intimacy and passion. But there are a few tips to remember when helping non-professionals shine in the spotlight.

1. Do Your Homework. Just like an attorney doesn’t ask a question at trial to which s/he doesn’t already know the answer, you should have a good sense before person steps in front of you on camera as to what stories they will tell, and how they like to tell them. Spend time learning the narrative of the person—resources are plentiful, since you have access to blog posts, articles, LinkedIn profiles and the like.
2. Make Eye Contact. If you do your homework, then you shouldn’t be referring to notes too often, if at all. (It’s a point of pride for me not to do this when I do video interviews.) Breaking eye contact breaks the personal connection between you and the interviewee, which is essential to keeping them comfortable and focused. Even if you, the interviewer, are not seen, the interview will be significantly more successful if you maintain eye contact throughout.
3. Understand Your Interviewee’s Learning Style. There is no “one size fits all” with people. Everyone has a different style of processing information. So, if I’ve got a visual learner, I might say “what does success look like to you at this company?” If she’s a kinesthetic learner, I might phrase it this way “Tell me the process you used for building a new HR strategy…?” For an auditory learner, “What kinds of feedback do you hear from customers that tells you you’ve hit on a successful formula here at Company ABC?” (More tips on how to figure out what kind of learner your subject is on my blog and in my new lynda.com course on Art of the Interview with my colleague Rich Harrington @rhedpixel.)
4. Plan the Arc of the Interview. Every interview has a beginning, middle and end much like a story. I never ask my most critical question first, but rather build a story line to the entire experience, that both my subject and I move through together. If you have to edit video, this is the most successful way to create editable content that won’t eat up valuable editing time.
5. Get a Better Answer. The worst thing you can say to an interview subject is “can you repeat that?” because it generally makes people entirely forget what they just said. Try using a gesture that makes them think you didn’t hear them. This will generally get a repeated --and improved—response. You can also try the “what’s the one thing…” approach, to get them to narrow down their answer to a “best of” category.

Amy DeLouise is a video director, brand strategist and popular workshop leader. This post was adapted from many courses she has taught on directing and working with real people, including the Art of the Video Interview on lynda.com.