Sticks and stones can break your bones but words can never hurt you. Or can they? One of the great things about the web is that everybody can voice their opinion. But that also means that one person can do damage to someone’s reputation whether or not it is deserved.

While the increasing popularity of search engines and online social communities has been a tremendous victory for free speech, it has created substantial headaches for ecommerce sites that are being discussed online with or without their knowledge. Like it or not people are talking about you online. They’re talking about your brand, your products, your corporate responsibility, your mission and your competition. You can’t afford NOT to listen.

Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve put it this way: “In today’s world, where ideas are increasingly displacing the physical in the production of economic value, competition for reputation becomes a significant driving force, propelling our economy forward.”   Being aware of negative or incorrect comments about your company can mean the difference between a stellar reputation or a deep dive into the sea of uncertainty. So how do you manage your online reputation? Your web hosting provider has the experience and can point you toward the resources that can help you.

Reputation management has become such an important issue in the ecommerce world that some companies have free lance employees who do nothing but monitor blogs and social communities – web hosting provider explains. This vulnerability to negative comments is coming at a time when consumers are becoming more demanding about the reputation, environmental responsibility and sustainability of the companies with which they do business. This has caused some companies who may have formerly seemed invincible to run the risk of falling by the wayside as consumer trust ebbs and flows.

Globalization, instantaneous news and online citizen journalism magnifies any corporate wrongdoing or other misstep. Ninety five percent of executives who participated in a recent survey said that reputation management was a bigger challenge that it has ever been.

According to Wikipedia, a complete reputation management strategy involves three components:

1. Maximizing the appearances of positive online references for a person or company.
2. Building an online identity in the event the web presence is minimal or nonexistent.
3. Solving online reputation problems.

As might be expected a number of companies have been established to “help” companies manage reputation management. Unfortunately, the service is so pricy that most small and medium businesses cannot afford it. If you choose to handle the monitoring yourself it is not difficult but it can be time-consuming. It is tied to RSS feed consumption.

The point is that whether you choose to outsource the work of reputation monitoring, do it yourself or use tracking software, you must do it. What you don’t know CAN hurt you. In this age of interaction on the web, knowing what is being said about your company is crucial. The consequences of a damaged reputation can be far-reaching and serious.