How many social media mistakes can a company make with one event? Ann Taylor Loft may have been trying for the record with its “Exclusive Blogger Preview” event for the summer 2010 collection on January 26. To start, the company offered gift cards to the bloggers who wrote about the event online, causing backlash from others in the blogosphere for its stench of pay-to-play in the wake of FTC disclosure guidelines.

Blogs such as Gawker Media-owned Jezebel and Los Angeles Times' ...