Consumers have more power than most realize today. Here are a few examples of what can be done today and will seem commonplace soon:
1. Put home improvement projects out to bid. Rather than calling around to find someone to work on your home, just take pictures of what you need done and post them to Craigslist. Let people compete for your project. This is so much more efficient than dialing through the yellow pages since you'll hear from people who have the time to solve your problem.
2. Ask for restaurant recommendations on Twitter. Do you have one night to spend out in a new town? Send out a request for recommendations to your Twitter followers. Someone who knows you and cares about you will probably get back to you within minutes. Or, you could rely on someone who doesn't know you for a recommendation.
3. Post your target salary on your blog. If you're good at what you do, someone may be willing to pay you more to do what you do than you are making now. Why not post your current "Make me Switch" target salary to your blog so people know what you're looking for? Perhaps your current employer would find this offensive, but they shouldn't. You're giving them first-right of refusal, so they can't complain if you receive an offer they're not willing to match?
4. Use Amazon's Mechanical Turk for tedious tasks. Need to get a large volume of tedious work done but can't find the time, or maybe your eyeballs are already starting to crack from dryness. Outsource the assignments to Mturk.com and watch how fast things get done.
What would you ad to this list?
