Figures released yesterday show that UK unemployment has reached 2.62 million and the Governor of the Bank of England has again cut the UK growth forecast. The UK is not alone though as many countries - and particularly those in mainland Europe - are in a similar (and in some cases far worse) situation.

Those of us who have jobs or run businesses should be doing all we can to ensure that our competition doesn't steal a march on us.

Reputation - always important - becomes even more valuable. This is something that takes a long time to build up, yet it can be destroyed incredibly quickly - and even more so in these days of social media.

In this week's news, under the heading: 'Customers are shouting, but is anybody listening?' we report on the results of a survey into customer complaints, what companies do about them and the damage social media can do to an organisation's reputation. The survey reveals that while the majority of British consumers will complain about poor service, almost half believe that their complaints fall on deaf ears.

Whereas poor service used to be discussed at dinner parties or the local pub and tended not to go much further than that, those with a grievance who feel they are being ignored can these days, easily air their complaint on Facebook or one of the other social media sites and the resulting damage can be enormous.

Almost half of consumers surveyed said that social media can hold brands and organisations to account like never before and I witnessed this only today. Often asked to 'like' people's businesses on Facebook, I visited one, only to see a discussion that had started up, about how bad some of the manufacturer's kitchen appliances were! Of course they may not be bad at all, but the seeds of doubt have been sown and the company's reputation has become tarnished.

My advice would be that if you can't ensure that all your customers feel well looked after and valued, you should at least keep an eye on your Facebook page! Or perhaps you should leave Facebook for the purpose it was set up - fun and not a work-related thing. At least with your own company's site, disgruntled customers can't make their feelings public. You don't have any control over what people write on your Facebook page and there is simply too much at stake to take any chances - particularly these days!

Yours,