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Fourth Friday Free-for-All: Stop Overthinking blogs!

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The fourth Friday is officially up for grabs at 834. Thus, Fourth Friday Free-for-All. You will hear from anyone and everyone — the guy that just put up our wallpaper (he knows a lot about customer service), to the people we talk to in restaurants (happy hour anyone?) and everyone in between. Have something you personally want to get off your chest or send off into the universe? Email ad******@*******gn.com and we’ll let you take a stab at it.
For our inaugural post, Kim Bode (our fearless leader) has a little message about blogging she’d like to reinforce for you below.
Listen up. I am only going to say this one more time, although this blog will live in the blogosphere for years and years as a valued piece of literature (obviously): Stop overthinking blogs!
A blog is not a research paper. It is also not 1,500 words. Hell, it doesn’t even have to be written (see: video, podcast or infographic). As firm bloglievers (like Beliebers, but way effin’ cooler and drastically less destructive or tattooed), we’ve heard too many times to count that four blogs a month is an outrageous expectation — staff is overloaded, there’s no time to spare, it’s not a priority and on and on and on. It appears our multiple blogs, newsletters, articles and social media posts about the importance of content generation has fallen on deaf ears.
Science… because science. 
Here are a few eye-opening statistics from our friends at HubSpot that prove blogging is a far more valuable marketing tool than most companies understand:

  • 46% of people read blogs more than once a day
  • 79% of companies that have a blog reported a positive ROI for inbound marketing in 2013
  • Marketers or companies who emphasize blogging are 13 times more likely to have increased ROI year-over-year
  • Blogging is the top tool used by inbound marketers and therefore, companies utilizing these agencies (see graph below)

HubSpot - State of Inbound Report - 2014
HubSpot – State of Inbound Report – 2014

It is also important to note that inbound marketing (social media, blogging, email marketing, SEO) is significantly cheaper than traditional or outbound marketing (via Hubspot | State of Inbound Report | 2014). Blogging saves you money! (Gasps from the non-bloglievers). Even further, you can actually measure the effectiveness of blogging by checking shares, analytics and downloads.
HubSpot | State of Inbound Report | 2014
The data doesn’t lie, folks. So now you have a choice: continue pouring marketing funds into $2,000-a-pop print ads or sit your ass down to write a 500-word blog that will reap 13 times the ROI for free. Hey, it’s up to you. We just write it and live it.

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If you ever need proof that personal brand matters...Kim got to see the @nasaartemis II launch in person as a direct result of her Big Deal Energy™.

You need to work hard, show up authentically, and provide value. That was her message to a room full of students and young professionals at @western_michigan_pmi`s theProject Collegiate Competition.

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Open post by 8thirtyfour with ID 18045223601588457
If you ever need proof that personal brand matters...Kim got to see the @nasaartemis II launch in person as a direct result of her Big Deal Energy™. You need to work hard, show up authentically, and provide value. That was her message to a room full of students and young professionals at @western_michigan_pmi's theProject Collegiate Competition. The Big Deal Energy™ Workshop is on June 23. Register at the link in bio.

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Open post by 8thirtyfour with ID 18012680507839574
Employers think Gen Z is lazy, entitled, and will quit the second things get hard. That perception is keeping you out of the room before you ever get a chance to prove otherwise. The good news is, you can flip the script, but it will take some serious work and a personal brand, or as Kim Bode refers to it: Big Deal Energy™. Kim is speaking at theProject™ Collegiate Event, hosted by the Project Management Institute Western Michigan Chapter on April 14. She'll cover how to build a personal brand that actually sounds like you (not ChatGPT) and how you can show your value through social, content and networking. Link in bio to learn more.

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Open post by 8thirtyfour with ID 18115092436709128
No one talks about how lonely it is to own a business. The tough decisions land on you, the business doesn't pause when you need a break, and nobody - not your employees or your spouse - really gets it. If you know a business owner, tell them they're doing a good job. It matters more than you know.

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Open post by 8thirtyfour with ID 18078804740143427
The growth stage is the hardest part of building a business. Kim was recently quoted in @corpmagazine on what she sees running the Women's Entrepreneurial Fellowship: women who have built something, survived the hardest part, and are still doing everything themselves. The natural tendency to be humble and attached to their work creates unique business challenges for women; they put up walls because they can't be vulnerable. Meanwhile, when a woman CEO needs growth capital, she compiles three years of tax returns before a bank will schedule a meeting, while her male competitor closes the same deal over drinks. When women have access to the right resources, they grow and invest back. Full article at the link in bio.