by Maura Ginty in Kissmetricks

I’m so glad to hear this. I’ve literally been pulling my hair out trying to get all of these systems to work together, and I didn’t know everyone else was, too.

I’m not sure who said that at our marketing meet-up yesterday, but I remember the statement because it could have been said by any of us. We all have conflicting data points, we’re all trying to get all of our systems to connect to each other in real time, and we’re all pining for the day that full marketing stack automation becomes a reality.

But that’s not the point of the story. The point is the comradery.

Today there is so much focus on social media websites like Twitter, Facebook and FourSquare, that is easy for companies to forget about the single most important social media tool available: their blog.  As a matter of fact, for companies who are looking to increase their search engine optimization efforts, a well-crafted blog can make a HUGE impact!

To validate this, HubSpot released a study last summer showing some dramatic search related differences for companies including blogs as part of their content strategy. Their data shows small business who blog have an average of 97% more inbound links, 434% more indexed pages and 55% more visitors.