Social media has forced big business to sit up and take notice. People are talking, talking about them, and anyone can make a complaint blow up quickly. Thanks to social media some virtual nobody can bring corporate misbehavior to the social media equivalent of the front page.

In response, some big companies put high level customer service or marketing people on social media to respond and handle such conversations with a personal passion. It's a level of personal involvement you'll not likely solicit calling their public toll free numbers.

I tweeted about a credit card processing problem I had with a technology services firm. Their marketing VP in Canada almost instantly replied to offer his personal intervention.

When I tweeted about Allstate making an improper ACH withdrawal from my checking account, a marketing director contacted me and offered to help. Gary Vaynerchuk would have been proud.

The single biggest edge small business have against big business may become dulled. When I competed against multi billion dollar companies, the one thing I had going for me was the fact that I answered the phone. My customers always spoke to someone in their country, that understood their culture, and felt a personal obligation to make the situation right.

The difference in response between a VP on social media and a call bank guy answering phones in some country you can't pronounce is position, status and culture. Any time you put your hands on a VP level professional, the customer service is white cloth. It's a different culture.

Executives typically treat customers like gold. It's very difficult to extrapolate that in a meaningful way amongst thousands of employees.

I expect this sort of responsiveness to change when social media conversations become more common. Can they keep this level of person and connection going when 80% of their customers contact them via social media. Can you just scream your complaint into the ether like I did and receive red carpet treatment indefinitely? Is this the new face of corporate America? You complain and they respond? Not likely.