Problems with J.Crew’s online store and the company’s subsequent response reveals one approach to how organizations are learning to conduct themselves within the goal-oriented sphere of social media.

Unlike traditional media channels, social media incorporates feedback to create a participatory network of shared ideas and experiences. The inclusive nature of social media makes it a powerful instrument valued by those who seek to communicate with institutions traditionally unreceptive to bottom-up influence. Participants in this network are engaged in continuous feedback loops that have the potential to affect change.

These channels have transformed consumers and institutions into co-pilots who share in a collective dialogue. Using the feedback available within the mediums, both parties can investigate what garners a response, what doesn’t, and adjust accordingly. The following J.Crew example exposes this social interplay between bloggers and corporations, and the power these channels provide to those who use it for goal-oriented communication.

On July 30, 2008, a brief post in a popular consumer blog noted J.Crew had extended, “a mutual apology for the non-workingness” of their site. It also highlighted that J.Crew’s apology didn’t offer any recompense. The blog continued to criticize J.Crew’s website with two articles entitled: J.Crew’s New Website Does Everything Except Fulfill Orders Properly and J.Crew’s Notoriously Awful Website Charges You $9208.50 To Ship The Wrong Shirt. The articles were followed with an outpouring of concurring testimonials about the site’s miscues.

J.Crew’s initial apology without benefit and the subsequent consumer feedback cinched the two entities into a communication loop that provoked two clear reactions from J.Crew. The first was from an employee in J.Crew’s IT department, who posted a response to the original June 30 post. Anonymous of J.Crew explained that there was “a lot going on” [with the site] and J.Crew was “doing a lot on the back-end to help things out”. The second response, which most strongly demonstrates the power of blog influence, came from J.Crew in the form of another apology in their September catalogue. J.Crew, heeding their customer’s complaints, issued the apology along with a 15% coupon for all on-line purchases.

The J.Crew scenario is a tidy example of how feedback and control within the context of social media is utilized by consumers and members of organizations. More importantly, it shows how these communicative functions help consumers influence organizations in ways unprecedented before the existence of our electronic social tissue.

In this case, J.Crew participated in the consumer experience. The company acted in such a way that was congruent with the community it engaged. However, consider for a moment what happens when the tables are turned. What happens when these avenues aren’t used by consumers to influence organizations but the other way around? It’s no mystery that corporations are attempting to use social media as a means to larger profits. The problem with this tactic is that it is perpendicular to the user-values of community and equal participation that underpin the fabric of social media. These divergent and often conflicting approaches of community versus marketing pose a great threat to companies who plan to slot themselves into the social media landscape. The last thing a corporation wants is to be perceived as disingenuous in this space, and for this reason corporations who are planning to use social media need to assess why, when, and how they are going to engage in this medium.