Posted by Mike Orren on Contests

Remember way back in the olden days of the 1990's when your only recourse when you were mad at a business was to bitch to your friends over a beer? Jeff Jarvis, whose writings inspired parts of our business plan, is a prime example of how that has changed: His blog-rants about his experience with Austin-based Dell not only got him satisfaction, but changed the way Dell approaches customer communications.

That path is becoming more common. Case-in-point: Joe Tyler, who has a beef with the Allen branch of Citibank .

There's even a T-shirt , easily whipped up via an online provider.

And that's just the low-hanging fruit. He could add a Facebook group and build a social network over morning coffee. Don't know if it will get his bank account reopened, but he's talking to people in a way that a bank can't won't.

In business today, you have to follow what's said about you online. That's relatively easy for a small group like ours. But I can't imagine keeping up with blogosphere buzz on a behemoth likt Citi.