CHANTILLY, Va.: The rapid growth of digital word-of-mouth through online reviews and social media presents a challenge for small and medium-sized business owners, who are often unaware of the online conversations taking place among consumers, said a recent report by BIA/Kelsey, a provider in consulting and valuation services.

According to the report, this will change as SMBs adopt more sophisticated marketing practices that require advanced communications platforms for e-mail, reputation and presence management (ERPM).

The firm forecasts revenues for ERPM to grow from $460 million in 2008 to $3.1 billion in 2013. The number of SMBs using ERPM would increase from approximately 500,000 to nearly 4 million during the forecast period, said a press release.

The e-mail segment of ERPM comprises subscription-based software-as-a-service providers and e-mail marketing agencies that tailor their solutions to the needs of SMBs. In 2008 this segment represented 64 per cent of the ERPM market.

Reputation management is built on the aggregation of reviews and comments, including product and service mentions by consumers. Opinions are gathered from sources like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Citysearch and thousands of others. The data is aggregated into a simple dashboard whereby businesses can view their online reputation by monitoring digital word-of-mouth. BIA/Kelsey expects technology and partnerships to evolve to enable businesses to respond to consumers' opinions, concerns and requests.

BIA/Kelsey defines presence management as "where" and "how" business data and information are located across Internet sources. A business may be listed in 100 directory sources. Presence management allows business owners to see how their businesses are displayed. The analysts expect presence management to transform into the ability to suggest corrections and clarifications to core business data. Further, presence will allow businesses to seamlessly promote themselves via outgoing messaging to numerous sites like Facebook and Twitter.

"SMBs will soon have a window into digital word-of-mouth," said Matt Booth, senior vice president and program director, Interactive Local Media, BIA/Kelsey.

"There are too many disparate conversations going on through social networks, user reviews, message boards and online affinity groups for a small business to find let alone track manually. We've been watching ERPM closely over the past couple of years and believe the segment is poised to break through with solutions that enable SMBs to effectively manage their online reputations. The market has developed in such a way that ERPM is basically a white space that capital and technology will rush to fill," he added.