Only a third of firms managing online reputation

Only 20% if businesses have a regularly updated blog and just 37% actively manage their online reputation using sites such as Twitter and Facebook, according to a survey conducted by digital marketing agency Queba.

This is despite the fact that that 91% of respondents stated that the perception of their brand online is important to their business and 66% agreeing that using blogs and social networking sights are good ways to engage with their audience.

David Sealey, director at Quba has advised small businesses using social networking that they must invest the time and manpower to do this properly if they want to see a tangible business benefit.

"Social networking is time consuming and requires foresight, but companies must take the time to do it right or not at all," said David.