Welcome to a new Weekly Interviews edition where we interview brilliant women in our industry and share their stories with the world! Anyone is welcome to share their story by simply filling this form, we encourage women from all walks of life in our industry to do so.
Introducing Bethanie Jane Dennis, Head of Content & Digital PR at Silverbean. Based in Newcastle, UK - Bethanie also runs The Weekly PR, a weekly newsletter that sends all of the latest successful brand campaigns and best digital PR articles to your inbox. When she’s not thinking of creative campaign ideas for clients, you can find her cooking up a storm in the kitchen, or in a heap on the floor at her CrossFit gym.
We asked her everything from how she first got into SEO to what empowers her to be the brilliant woman she is 💪🏽
Honestly, accidentally, like most people in SEO! I came out of university with a photography degree and no idea on what to do next. While at Uni, I worked at a small local clockmakers in Derby, initially organising their photo library, then I got tasked with more marketing bits like writing content for the site, press releases and running their socials. When I left Uni, I looked at general marketing jobs, as I loved it so much. I then accepted a job at a local agency as a link builder, not knowing what it was at the time!
Link building for sure, the joy of refreshing a page and a link being there, or getting a notification saying someone has covered your campaign. You can't beat it!
For me, it has to be old faithful Buzzstream. It's our central hub for everything links and it's so helpful for having visibility of what others are doing, and scheduling emails.
Very early on, when I learned that a small increase in ranking, and a small increase in click through rate, could result in a huuuuge amount of revenue for some clients. It was very much an 'AHA' moment, figuring out that small improvements that work together can make a big difference.
I think a mixture of a few things, pitching and winning some of our huge clients, and getting coverage on the likes of BBC and Vogue. Vogue!
Talk to as many people as you can and ask a lot of questions. Remember that not even the best of the best know everything. We're lucky in our industry that most are very open, willing to share knowledge, and be very honest about things when they are struggling. Things change so fast and everyone's trying to keep up.
Shannon McGuirk from Aira, she's so open about a lot of things, and probably the nicest person in SEO. Also Lexi Mills, she's just a badass. Kirsty Hulse as well, dropping truth bombs left, right and centre, and being so real.
All of the fantastically clever women in our industry, who push each other up instead of dragging each other down. My agency, we have 9/10 of our senior management positions (heads of service, directors) filled by women, which is unheard of and just incredible.
----
Thanks Bethanie for a truly insightful interview. You can check Bethanie's website and connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.
To view more interviews with brilliant women, check out our Interviews page. If you've enjoyed reading this interview, then we'd love for YOU to share your story with the world! Simply fill this form here, we welcome brilliant SEOs from all walks of life! 🙌🏽