To help our readers get to know the people that power our newsroom, we host live Twitter conversations called #TheInsideStory on our @InsiderInc account with reporters and editors from our Business, Life, and News sections.

We recently caught up with Sally Kaplan, Executive Editor, Reviews, to learn more about her career path, team strategy, accomplishments, and get the latest on deals leading up to the 2022 holiday season. Be sure to follow Sally on Twitter @sallymayana and check out her page on Insider.

We’re so excited to be chatting with you today, @sallymayana. To get started, can you tell us more about your role at @thisisinsider? #TheInsideStory

I’d love to! As the co-executive editor of @InsiderReviews, I work closely with my co-EE Michael Nolledo to lead the editorial strategy and content execution for our talented team of product review editors and reporters.

My job is to collaborate with lots of teams at insider (shoutout to product and tech, production, SEO, business, and social!) to bring our readers the best reviews and buying guides on the Internet. A lot of my friends and family just think I play with products all day, but most of my focus is on using smart data to make decisions about what we write, when we write it, and how we keep it updated.

There's a lot of strategy powering your work! We're excited to learn more about that today. You've had a fascinating career path leading you here. Can you share more about your background?

It’s definitely been a circuitous journey! I majored in political science @GWtweets and started working for a non-profit doing legislative advocacy in DC.

My focus was on teaching students and communities how to lobby for programs that would put a stop to the school-to-prison pipeline. We advocated for bills that funded community-based resources for conflict resolution and prevention, often called “restorative justice” programs, which are statistically much more effective at preventing crime/reducing recidivism than sending kids to juvie. I had become the director of my department, but I got extremely burnt out in the nonprofit industry.

I ultimately decided that I wanted my activism to be something I did with my heart, not something I did to pay the bills. At the time, I kept a blog on the side where I wrote about food, home decor, and other things that interested me, and I decided to take a leap of faith and pursue writing and editing. Thanks to my blog, I was hired as a commerce intern at @BuzzFeed in 2016 where I started my career all over again!

After @BuzzFeed, I was hired at @BestProducts as a lifestyle editor, and from there I came to @InsiderReviews in 2018. It seems like yesterday, but I'll be celebrating 5 years with @thisisinsider in February!

Thank you for sharing your journey so far! It's inspiring, especially for those who may be considering a career change as well. Can you expand on how you think your passions & experience play a role in how you set the strategy for you & your team?

Working in advocacy requires you to understand what the person on the other side of the table needs to hear in order to support your issues. Similarly, when you’re helping a reader make a purchasing decision, you need to understand what factors matter to them.

That concept is at the core of everything we do. You also have to know how to get your work in front of an audience. In politics, that means using different tactics to sweet-talk your way into a congressional office! But in publishing, that means learning where your readers are coming from and leveraging different ways to reach them. Then, you have to deliver trustworthy, useful information that's actually helpful.

Great insight! We'd love to see this in action. Can you share some of your/your team's biggest accomplishments at @thisisinsider?

Well, I have to shout out my deputy editor @el_savvy for quarterbacking our All-Time Best project at @InsiderReviews!

We polled our team of 20+ journalists on the best products they’d ever tested or used, and worked with our visuals team to produce an interactive page to help readers shop and learn about new brands.

Another huge accomplishment was our pandemic-related coverage, where we helped readers navigate unfamiliar products like face masks and PPE, and helped them find in-stock essentials like toilet paper and cleaning supplies.

It was such a scary time for us and our readers, but my team handled our coverage with deep empathy, rigorous medical reviews, and insight from experts. I'm so proud of the service we provided our audience, and even more proud of how the team came together to help.

These 2 examples really showcase the breadth of topics your team covers, and all the work that goes on behind the scenes. Now, the holidays are now around the corner. Is there anything we should keep an eye on from your team with Black Friday upon us?

Yes! Our team will have 24/7 coverage of the best deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

We have experts in tech, home, kitchen, style, beauty, and beyond who will be bringing you curated recommendations for which deals are actually worth your time. You can see all of our coverage here!

We have also been updating and publishing tons of gift guides for the holiday season! S/o to our gifts editor @jaypugz who has been working tirelessly to bring you the most unique, fun, and interesting gift ideas for friends and family.

**Insider’s 2022 Black Friday Coverage**

Don't mind us taking notes! However, the conversation around deals seems to be more amplified than years past. How do you strategize coverage and find the latest information?

You’re so right. Every year, deals start earlier, and the space gets more crowded with publishers competing - especially in search. But even if you have the best SEO strategy, readers aren’t going to keep coming back if you’re not actually providing helpful context or shopping guidance. Our focus is on giving people context around price (including price history) and explaining why this may or may not be the right purchase for them.

We often get advanced notice of a lot of the deals, so we’re able to take our time comparing whose discounts will be better and how the discount compares to past deal days.

But the most important thing is understanding that at the other end of our stories, there’s a person looking for our expertise and guidance, and we need to deliver. Especially in the current economic climate, we want to help people stretch their dollars further.

Referring to where you mentioned the importance of including helpful guidance, it's true that gifts are not “one-size fits all”. How do you account for different types of readers and gift-givers when putting guides together?

I love this question because gift-giving is one of my love languages! The most important rule for us is to consider all the types of people who might be giving or receiving these gifts. We think about everything from budgets to relationships to personality types.

For example, in a “gifts for your girlfriend” guide, we’re not only thinking about what products make great gifts for different interests, we’re also thinking about where you might be in your relationship. Is it new? Have you been together for a long time?

Are you still getting to know her? We make recommendations across a spectrum. And when we’re curating and writing gift guides for specific people (your mom, dad, sister, etc.) it’s also important that we don’t treat the group as a monolith.

Gender stereotypes often dominate gift guides, and that’s something we actively work to break away from.

The consideration is very much appreciated, and useful! We've had a great time getting to know you better today. Before we go, is there anything else you’d like the audience to know about the world of reviews?

So much to say, so few characters to say it! But I’ll end with this: I think what’s most vital for our audience to know is that our team cares so deeply about helping our readers, whether that means introducing you to cool, sustainable brands that align with your values, or figuring out which pillow is going to reduce your neck strain and help you sleep better. We do this work because we know that the right product can help improve your quality of life in big and small ways. Thank you so much for having me!

Sally, thanks so much for joining today’s #TwitterChat and telling us more about your background and your coverage. Be sure to follow @sallymayana and check out her page on Insider to get the latest on all-things reviews: https://businessinsider.com/author/sally-kaplan…

"The most important thing is understanding that at the other end of our stories, there’s a person looking for our expertise. " Twitter Q&A with Executive Editor, Reviews, Sally Kaplan