How to Format an AWESOME Group Interview for Best Results Using #MyBlogU

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We continue tweaking our functionality as we learn from user behavior, trends and best online practices. I am pretty sure we’ll keep doing it for many years ahead, so today’s tips and screenshots may be updated at some point but we have done enough to share as of today!

We were pursuing the following rules when creating the functionality:

1. A group expert interview is aimed at providing an indepth well-structured article (which is easy to navigate and share)
2. A group expert interview is aimed at offering more exposure to the participating thought leaders (increased following and more citations)
3. A group expert interview is aimed at giving branding exposure to the interviewees AND social-assisted conversions for the publisher.

Before we list the tips, check out all the different ways to use the feature besides just generating group interviews.

So the first step is simple: You publish a request for opinions here and wait to gather good answers. Note: you can extend your deadline at any time if you are willing to gather more answers… So what happens if you think you are ready to publish the provided opinions?

You don't have to accept all answers, but be sure to check the ones you want when you close the Interview 🙂 #myblogu

— Don Sturgill (@DonSturgill) August 21, 2014

• (Optional) You can get in touch with all or selected contributors to PM them any update (thank, promise to publish soon, invite to the upcoming Twitter chat on the same topic, etc). For that click “Show answers” from inside “My Interviews”, select the contributors and click “Get in touch with contributors”
• Once you are ready to publish the interview, select the answers you’d like to include in the interview and confirm by clicking “Close and get HTML”

@igauravsoni – just ask question or answer them as you see fit… we often have side-discussions amongst ourselves #myblogu

— Phil Turner (@EP_pturner) August 21, 2014

This is where the fun starts:

1. Generate the table of contents

Since most of the interviews get rather long (thanks to the variety of questions-answers and opinions), navigating it may be tough. We have created a feature allowing you to generate the on-page table of contents (you can see it in action here: Click any link below “the following questions” and it will jump to that part of the interview).

The MBU Group Interview function is a powerful tool for writers and publishers! Check it out: http://t.co/Fb98F1Kwty #myblogu

— Don Sturgill (@DonSturgill) August 21, 2014

The on-page navigation has multiple benefits including:

• Better usability
• More time on page (driving readers further into the article)
• More search engine optimization benefits (which I showcase here)

To generate the on-page table of contents, simply check this option after closing the interview and proceeding to the code (This has saved me 40 minutes of time as I used to generate them manually):

2. Provide more info on the featured experts

Since we thrive to provide more benefits to ALL the participating parties, we have made it easier to create the chart outlining all the participants, giving their background and linking to their major social media profile (see the example here).

This both:

• Gives users more incentives to contribute;
• Makes your group interview more trust-worthy “at a glance” by providing more authentic info on each contributor:

3. Add experts’ photos next to corresponding answers…

Seeing real people behind content is powerful as it adds more trust signals; this is why we are showing interviewees’ provided photos next to each of their answers. Of course, the publisher has all the editing powers and can edit anything out, but we figured photos make your photos more trusted, especially at the first glance.

Besides, many of those photos are (or soon will be with @MyBlogU help) very familiar to readers (especially given the contributors will share the published article with their following where they are well known) – which is bound to result in even more engagements from people who will be happy to see their friend contribute!

And yes, that will result in more brand awareness for the participants as well!

Have fun participating in and publishing @MyBlogU interviews for more branding benefits, traffic and exposure!

Also you can support us by spreading the word: Here are some goodies!

In case you were bored: