Here at marCis interactive, it’s been noted that small businesses looking to get a jump – be it through ads, social media marketing, search engine optimization, what have you – have a significant obstacle to getting there. That obstacle would be the big businesses.

It seems like a pretty stacked deck. They have millions of dollars to spend doing whatever they want, creating viral marketing campaigns on all manner of social media. Nevermind that they clearly have no idea how to handle themselves. They have the power of their brand advertising. It’s enough.

But there is a slight amount of wiggle room in the equation. Sure, a brand can have a lot of power if it has a lot of positives associated with it. We’ve discussed this before. This is how Apple makes all the money that it does. But in keeping this focus, this blog has ignored that there are other brands that have other connotations.

Bring up Microsoft in crowds, and you’ll hear the unfavorable comparisons out of nowhere: Vista is the worst thing since cancer, Apple is better, Linux is the best, so on, so forth.

The point is, brands can have a lot of negative connotations as well. And the bigger the brand, the more the negatives stand out.

This can be exploited.

Everyone knows about Craigslist. The message board site is infamous for the wide variety of topics and services offered. Just about anyone can post anything there at any time. The listings – and their responses – are a practical microcosm: the Internet in miniature, for better or for worse.

Surely it has done someone some good somewhere. But if you bring it up in conversation, the only things you’re likely to hear about are scams. A friend was promised a job, but they didn’t get it and further they actually lost money. That kind of thing.

It’s got a reputation as being a sketch place. The founders of Turbo140.com noticed this.

“Craigslist is creepy, but there’s no alternative for local services,” says Jonathan Hegranes, co-founder of the site. The goal of the site is to be a social marketplace, an attempt to outsource the one-time gigs that are advertised on Craigslist. They aren’t trying to offer big huge jobs necessarily; rather, they’re offering micro-jobs – fixing toilets, mowing lawns.

People looking for help make a post less than 140 characters long. The site takes that post and posts it on their Twitter, as well as their Facebook page and their website.

Professionals than look through the work log. They place bids on the jobs and post a short explanation of why they’re the best fit for the job. Clients can then review the bids, ask for more information, and eventually select a winner.

The eventual goal though is to take it a step further – rather than posting ads, Hegranes is hoping that companies will post profiles, like in the Yellow Pages.

This is a genuinely clever idea. Turbo140 is attempting to beat Craigslist at its own game, and it has already begun to attract money.

It can be done.