The perils of trying to sell something online. I recently advertised my car online with autotrader and was impressed when I received an enquiry about it the same day. That was, until I delved a little further into the request.

It is a sad fact but between 1999 and 2010 36,371 people were killed on our roads - on average seven people every day. Each one of these accidents represents only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to trying to measure the impact every one of these has on a family network - the effects of which carry on for a lifetime. To illustrate this you can access this BBC interactive map which details every one of these terrible accidents giving you a snapshot of the horror that exists on many of our roads every day of the week.

The recent video of a Fed Ex employee casually tossing a PC monitor over a fence unaware of the fact he was being filmed offers both a lesson in how quickly a reputation threat can go viral but also how a modern organisation should deal with such matters. There have been plenty of past examples of organisations either burying their head in the sand or simply denying there is a problem when the world knows otherwise. The growth of social media and the ability of ordinary folk to post and comment on pictures of what they see makes it impossible to avoid the issue and hope it will go away.

The response of Fed Ex has been first rate both in the way they have used social media to respond but also the speed with which they responded. This doesn't surprise me. I had recent contact with them via Twitter after I posted a complaint about the erratic driving of one of their delivery guys. Not only were they scanning mentions on Twitter but their response was immediate and helpful.

In the middle of the debate around the health reforms a lesser trailed change has been implemented which if true to its word will give us the best chance of tackling long term health problems we've had in decades - the integration of public health into local government.

The approach to date has been flawed. We have allowed unfair, unjust and unequal environments and social systems to generate what in essence are avoidable diseases and illnesses only to then buy back the health that has been lost through expensive health service treatments. How many cases of asthma could have been prevented by ensuring no-one has to live in damp or squalid conditions? How many road accidents could be prevented by more effective road management especially in urban areas? We know that 70% of health and wellbeing is influenced by social factors rather than the NHS. By bringing the Council and NHS closer together, NHS practitioners can work alongside colleagues across the Council and influence decision on these areas.

Customer relations is changing and changing fast. Whether it is driven by cost savings or a recognition that audience habits are changing, there is no disputing that the way organisations interact with their customers is very different to 5-10 years ago. Social media has simply speeded up the change. Customers now expect instant responses and want their views expressed on a public platform. The most savvy businesses know this.

I recently lambasted the driver of an international delivery company who overtook me and two other cars on a bend in a village in Lancashire. He didn't care for the fact that children were on their bikes next to the road or that the speed limit was 30mph. Disgusted with the fact that he saw it more important he meets his delivery deadline than mine and others safety, I said as much on twitter later. I was then contacted by theUKmanager of the company in question who asked me to email him the details to pass on to the driver's manager.

I met with an ex-colleague last week who was in trouble at work as a result of email. I'm surprised there are not more incidences of this but then again perhaps there are, we just don't hear about them. Basically this person had reached the end of their tether over a colleague and was sending a particularly 'ranty' email to their manager only to find to their horror as they pressed send that they were so hung up on this particular person that they had inadvertently typed their name in the 'To' box by mistake. What was a difficult relationship just got worse.

As expected following the recent England v Spain game the country is polarised between those who are starting to whip themselves into a frenzy of expectation for the Euros next year and those who recognised the frailties of England's performance.

As someone with a personal interest in the standards of football coaching both of these views, to me, show why we will never be able to compete at the highest levels - not until the English game undergoes root and branch reform. England's cautious approach will never sit easy with a public crying out for someone to get the ball forward and attack. The problem is such as approach is doomed to fail against the better quality teams. Last week Xabi Alonso pointed out that a Carragher style quality of clearing the ball to row Z does one thing and one thing only - hand the ball back to the opposition. Similarly, at a young age suggesting a player is good because they can tackle should not be seen as a positive. Especially since the best players will avoid the need to tackle by pressing and intercepting the ball.

There was a time criticism was relatively easy to manage. A disgruntled customer would write a letter, you would reply and either resolve the issue or simply explain the rationale behind the decision that had upset them. Some would not bother to reply. Handling negative media was equally straightforward. Manage a response to deal with the immediate impact and then implement a forward plan turning the criticism on its head and either diverting attention to other issues or setting into play a charm offensive to neutralise negative perception. Of course, Ratner showed reputation could still be irreparably damaged if the news is big enough but on the whole, day to day the job of reputation management was more straightforward.

You wouldn't write an uncomplimentary message about one of your colleagues and leave it on your desk for them to find would you? Similarly, if unhappy
at work most people wouldn't broadcast their lack of motivation openly in the
office. Why then do so many people leave their brains behind when they log on
to social media sites?

The recent case involving teachers who reportedly ridiculed some of the
children that attended their school, calling them 'inbreds' is a casing point.
Just why would they think publicly posting messages of this nature on their
profile would not come back to haunt them? Faced with the horror of the damage these kind of stories can bring to organisations it is easy to see why they
respond by withdrawing access for staff. However, as this case shows, the
damage was done outside of work making it impossible to police. So what is the
answer?

The media world is changing fast and many organisations are struggling to keep up. I saw some figures this week showing that in the last year alone the number of people accessing Facebook through a mobile phone has increased by 150 million.

In the borough that I work, Facebook use amongst the 16-24 age group now runs at over 95%.

This presents us with a challenge. In ten years time these digitally savvy young people will have families of their own and will have become mainstream customers.

They will not want to have to visit access points or pick up a phone. Instead they'll want everything to be done online - and fast.

I don't expect they'll be happy waiting a couple of days for a reply or being passed from pillar to post.