To much pain to register at Internet Evolution so I'll comment here if that's ok. Dell Hell may not be indicative of consumer reaction sites. Jeff Jarvis is of course a very prominent blogger, a journalism prof at City University in NYC and at the time of the Dell Hell blog the recently retired CEO of an online publisher, and before that the founder of Entertainment Weekly. He might just have connections, and know a thing or two about using media to get a message out and how to craft that message so that it resonates. As I remember their was a fair amount of traditional media coverage on this story which probably helped the linking and drove search priority (rankings have since changes giving blogs less influnce in search). It’s not that I disagree with your underlying message – companies should listen to their customers – and social media makes it relatively easy. I’m just not as convinced that the power has shifted to consumers – and certain that Jeff’s experience is not common. Most consumer complaint sites struggle from lack of notice by not just the company, but the public generally.

[...] as I’ve commented elsewhere Jeff’s comment was a perfect storm for Dell. An influential and highly media savvy blogger takes [...]

[...] Negative is the new positive. Do you have the guts to capitalize on it? [...]