Michelle Klein has had an interesting career path starting
as a writer for The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia. She traveled the world,
settling in the U.K. and working for the Sea Containers Group, including Orient
Express Hotels. It was there that she gained experience in new media as part of
an internal digital agency which led to a stint at Agency.com, followed by Diageo
and ultimately Facebook where she is currently the Director of Business Marketing
for North America .
Klein is an emerging leader in the media and advertising
community.
I asked her the following questions:
Charlene Weisler: Tell me about
your current job at Facebook.
Michelle Klein: My job is to bring the Facebook story to
life in the market, for large advertisers to small businesses and agencies
alike.. We are partners to sales and product working behind the scenes to
create meaningful storytelling.
Charlene Weisler: How has Facebook changed since you first started
there?
Michelle Klein: One of Facebook’s five core values is to
move fast – which has made the last year incredibly exciting. On the platform,
one of the biggest shifts we’ve seen is in how people consume video. There are
now 100 millions hours of video watched daily on Facebook, a significant
portion of which happens on mobile. Similarly, we’ve watched video become an
important and powerful medium for businesses of all sizes.
Charlene Weisler: Where do you think video viewing on mobile is headed?
Michelle Klein: The shift has already happened – on
Facebook, 75% of video views are on mobile. Our research shows that the brain
actually engages differently when viewing content on mobile – people are more
attentive and tend to feel more positively toward information presented on the
mobile screen New video products, like 360 video and Facebook Live will only
continue to evolve the way we consume content on our devices.
Charlene Weisler: Is advertising on mobile different than on other
platforms?
Michelle Klein: Advertising on mobile requires a fresh
approach to creative. You have to capture attention through thumb stopping
content, usually with the sound off. So the first 3 seconds are important in
the story telling. There are some really great examples out there of brands
creating compelling content with the sound off and through strong, emotive
visuals.
Charlene Weisler: Has consumer behavior changed in a year since you
started at Facebook?
Michelle Klein: The consumer shift to mobile is arguably the
most important thing that has happened to the media and advertising world since
the advent of TV, and we continued to see its impact over the last year. As
part of this shift, we’ve seen the rise of messaging apps around the world that
are set to usher in the next great evolution in communication. Six of the ten
most downloaded apps are messaging apps. At Facebook, we have 800 million active
people on Messenger and a billion on WhatsApp.
Charlene Weisler: You must have a very
immersive and intensive work life. How do you achieve work / life balance?
Michelle Klein: I am so happy that you asked that question. One
thing I love about working at Facebook is how serious our leaders are about everyone
leading meaningful lives, both personally and professionally. When you have
that balance, integration, whatever you want to call it, you do better work,
and you can make a larger impact in everything you do. It’s all about
understanding what’s important in our lives, and working around those things. So
for example, if you need to drop off your child at school twice a week, you
book the time to do it. If going to the gym regularly is important to you, you
take time out of your day to do it. I like to work out in the mornings so I can
arrive at work at 9:30 and I can leave by 5:45p to be with my children.
Everyone is respectful of that and it has had profound impact on morale.
Charlene Weisler: What advice would you give a current college graduate
seeking a career in media?
Michelle Klein: Take every opportunity that comes your way.
There is no direct career path anymore and by taking on a variety of roles you
can learn and grow into new opportunities. Sheryl Sandberg called this a
“career jungle gym” and that has been true of my experiences leading up to and
at Facebook. Many Millennials have this ethos already, gone are the days of
having one type of career in one type of industry.
No comments:
Post a Comment