What Should Happen To @don_draper?

Every time a client or prospective client asks what they should do with social media, the first thing that comes out of my mouth is "listen." So, that's what I want to do here.

Early next week I'll hand over the keys to @don_draper. Over the weekend I'll be working on putting together some of the things I learned from the whole experience of tweeting as him.

I think a nice way to wrap it up would be to include some thoughts from "Don's" followers and fans of Mad Men on what they think AMC should do with the account. After all, it's the followers and fans of Mad Men who made the whole thing take off like it did.

If you have any thoughts on what you would like to see happen with @don_draper, please let the people who will be taking over the account know.

Just leave your thoughts in the comments.*

Thanks.

*I'll attribute your thoughts to you automatically, so if you don't want your name tied to it, just put "A Mad Man Fan" or something like that as the name to the comment. Also, I have no control over what they do with it, nor any information as to what their plans are for it. All we can do is hope for the best.

Comments

[Catmc]

It's apparent to me that Twitter can be a new dimension of television. Not as in fan literature (although the current @Don_Draper did a very nice job), but as a part of the viewer experience.

AMC should work with its writers to work in legitimate storylines via its Twitter characters. It adds a great new dimension for people following the stories...there could be subplots that are only alluded to in the broadcast show. Little inside jokes for Twitter followers. Soon, everybody will want to keep up with the Twitter characters.

I think it's the future of TV. AMC has a great opportunity here. Remember,

"Whatever can be done, will be done. The only question is will it be done by you or to you. Just don’t think it won’t be done."--Thomas Friedman

[Tom Lewis]

Whatever happens, @don_draper shouldn't be parroting AMC corporate nonsense/showtimes/reminders/etc. @don_draper should be attuned to the Don Draper character, interact with the other Mad Men personas on Twitter, and generally carry on the way it's been going the past year. It was brilliant and a loose commitment to those ideals will keep it going in a satisfying way.

Thank you for creating and maintaining @don_draper - it's been really fun! Best of luck to you.

I'm @tomdog BTW

[Alexander Fringes]

I really enjoyed following Mad Men's characters and would enjoy doing so again during the next season.
Depending on AMC's flexibility it would obviously be interesting to get the show's writers involved not just in twittering to the fans but also to incorporate the feedback they get into the show. This is why it would be interesting for AMC to continue the character's twitter account even between seasons - it would give them a sort of playground for the character and see what the feedback for the different actions are. After all the "@" - reply - function is an integral part of twitter and I believe it would be great for fans to feel like the creators of the character are actually getting their reactions (even if they are playful) to the writers' ideas.

Lastly - thanks for the fun tweets - it was always nice to see something this creative show up on my iPhone.

Best,
Alexander

[Bud Caddell]

Hey Paul,

I'm excited to read your thoughts! Very cool. I hope the new Don_Draper can be as quick witted as you, and keeps a conversation going with the fans, not just blasting in 140 character chunks. It's unfortunate it won't be helmed by a fan, too bad you couldn't hand it off to someone else in the Mad Men tribe.

[Brett T. T. Macfarlane]

The biggest thing will not to get too fancy with it. It's a nice compliment to the show and trying to drive the core narrative with it risks ruining a good thing by over complicating it. What I loved about the Mad Men tweets was the details of agency life between shows, the mundainities, an escape to another era. Written in a pithy way creative people would naturally. In many ways the same things that are interesting with real people alive today. Turning it into a ratings driver or DM machine will turn me off. It simple rounds out and builds a personal relationship with the shows characters.

Wonderful initiative and experiment. Been an insightful journey. Thanks for sharing.

[Joe Castagna]

I like @Don_Draper and I am very sorry to see him go. I don't understand what all the fuss was about. I mean I assumed that it was just someone who was assuming the part of a fictional character and it was fun to ask questions and get responses back or even hear about his fictionalized life.

I want @Don_draper back to normal.

[Mark Gould]

As a non-US Mad Men fan, I think AMC need to be aware that the development of the @Don_Draper online persona will be out of sync with the timing of the TV show in other countries. For example, the UK showing of series two is likely to be next spring.

[Thibaut]

The different characters on twitter must write story arcs intricated with the show : what happens between episodes ? Let's see it on twitter !
Let's set up an alternate reality where I can follow Don Draper in his life between the shows, and ask him advices "in character".
AMC people : think about the Alternate Reality marketing campaign for Batman as an example.
Tell stories, even when the TV is off.

[Julie]

I'd like @Don_Draper to just continue being Don Draper, between episodes and between seasons, just saying Don stuff. A little story arc hint now and then would be cool too, but mostly I just want more of the character.

[strawberryluna]

I would absolutely love to see the in character tweets continue between Don Draper and the rest of the Mad Men characters. Clearly the addition of the Mad Men world to the Cloud is amazing and has a lot of compelling value since so many folks made this phenomenon. I just love it, I think that it adds a depth to the show and characters that no other medium or outlet could possibly have. The immediacy and the running commentary and conversations are quite cool. I'd be sad to see it end.

It's amazing how just a few sentences a day can keep the show and the characters in mind.

[Paul]

Since two years transpire between each season, before season 3, I would like to see Don's observations on the news/changes from 1962 to 1964, coupled with plot references. Or you might post with an eye on current events, as Betty Draper did. ("Carla seems especially cheerful this week." 10:44 AM Nov 6th)

[stephanie gerson]

I didn't follow don_draper, but with regards to extending TV/movie characters via social media, I've thought of a possibility for animated characters. which Don Draper is not, so this isn't really for AMC. er, necessarily. essentially, it shouldn't be too difficult to cook something up that lets a person videochat with an avatar. person in little screen, avatar in big screen. and with improvements in virtual body language, a person chatting with an avatar might actually look pretty great. think how fun/dangerous it would be for kids to talk directly to SpongeBob et al....

[HMK]

Hey. I am not @ anywhere, but, I just wanted to say that I am so glad this is how you decided to wrap Don up. I think this fan communication with Don has become more meaningful than most would admit. For a brand or a character, being alive, breathing, interacting with others as a real, multi-dimensional person can, is important.

Listen. Act. React. Just be true to thine self.

Betty would be proud.

[Jeff Bentley]

the story of @don_draper will be a case study for years to come - as for the future, it might be interesting if the account simply tweeted one-liners from the show - i think it could be done programmatically with relative ease...

i feel you did a truly brilliant job, and amc would have been wise to put you on salary to manage the mad men twitter presence for the foreseeable future...best of luck in your future endeavors :)

[PKayne]

I would be great if don_draper would start twittering about his life. What accounts he's working on, what characters (clients & coworkers) he is coming in contact with and what he thinks of them all. What women he is considering making a move on. Or his view on his relationship with his wife and family. He could also make subtle hints about his past, sort of like a bread crumb trail. I know he is a private man but sometimes little things slip out.

Don likes to scribble notes and ideas on napkins so Twitter can be the medium through which viewers/followers are privy to some of those notes. Twitter can also be his personal diary, which would offer some level of psychological insight into the workings of the man. Instead of a detailed narration of his daily activities, which can be drole.

Don has many layers, unlike many of the peeps he works with so Twitter can be a way to see through some of those layers.

[Wayne Allen Sallee]

If my comment is being passed along to the next @don_draper, the thing I would want to be known is that I had a blast making comments re: brand names in 1962 (Oasis cigarettes), and, as a fellow writer (fiction, not advertising), Paul Isakson kept me on my toes. Paul stepped out of character once for me early on, when I made a comment about how easy it was in this "new age" of television to confuse reality with, well, reality. What Paul did with his creation of @don_draper was follow a thought experiment to its next logical step. I don't really have anything else I can say, to be honest.

[paul isakson]

All - Thank you for taking time to leave your comments. The people taking over the account are reading these and want to hear what you have to say. Please continue sharing.

Thanks!

[Sidney WIlliams]

I think Tweets that enhance the on-screen storyline during the season and beyond, with some interactivity with other Tweeters would be interesting. It carries out the interactive notion of social media and takes it beyond forums dedicated to a show.

[Aki Spicer]

The challenge of our times (for TV) is turning audiences to advocates...consider the tactics of one of the master multimedia storytellers:George Lucas. Early on in negotiations for Star Wars, George Lucas argued for rights to the ancillary product merchandising. At the time the model of a mega-movie franchise was hard to foresee. The results of that negotiation was fruitful, Lucas made more money on the ancillary merch than the movie sales. Which is not quite the point, really, the bigger point is Lucas knew he has a big story to tell - a story too big for 2 hours. And he assumed fans would accept the notion that the world of Star Wars was rich and deep with many more stories to tell (the movie starts at episode 4, already implying hidden backstories and pending future stories). The big vision was: products and merch is a brilliant way to extend his stories (cheaper than shooting another movie which can only happen years apart). Toys lets kids co-create the story. Books let fans read more of the story not revealed in the 2 hour movie. His role, was now bigger than director of the 2 hour story production. His role was as control center, hub, to a galaxy of partner storytellers across a wide panoply of media. This is essentially the role of today's TV show writers/producers. The 1 hour weekly movie is the small picture...you're the wizard conducting the orchestra of a galaxy of stories and your job is to weave coherence across this story thread. George Lucas acknowledged he cannot write all those stories and books himself. His role is not to stop the writers, but to guide and mentor them in populatating this galaxy he created.
Advice: stop trying to limit the spiraling threads and "hold the sweater of show production together" and start pulling some of the strings out yourself and letting the story spiral where it needs to go.

long winded. sorry. a thought.

[Rick Liebling]

I think brands are in a real tough spot here. Part of the fun of Mad Men on Twitter was knowing that it wasn't AMC pulling the strings, but rather fans like Paul, Bud (and me). I'm sure AMC can put together a crew that will be competent but I'm already looking forward to the next brand - and next group of consumers - that will continue to create what I call a Deeply Immersive Narrative Universe.

Rick Liebling aka
@Freddy_Rumsen
@Mister_Smiths
@David_Ogilvy

[LK]

I believe the twitter experience with Mad Men is breaking new ground and is one of the most phenomenal marketing ideas in the last decade (as it applies to TV). I am a fanatical fan of Mad Men and even though I knew the real actors are obviously not the twitter characters, it has been so much fun interacting with them. You honestly feel you are talking to the TV character (if the twitterer doing the impersonation is good), and it only serves to make the twitter audience more attentive and devoted to the show.

I created a persona from the 1960s and have been having so much fun "playing" with the Sterling Cooper gang. I told my friend I had been talking to Don Draper on Twitter and she had a heart attack - this shows the power of the experience - there is a psychological feeling about it, even though we know the score.

I particularly like the twitter impersonators who really understand the character they are playing. I must single out Jimmy Barrett and Roger Sterling, whose gems are so brilliantly funny, I actually moved Roger up in my Favorite Character list.

I believe the twitter characters have two goals: 1) obviously to represent the character impeccably, but also 2) to increase TV viewership. Thus, they need to make the twitter audience feel they have access to the inner workings. My only complaint with twitter Don (sorry), was he often cut people off with a very abrupt answer, and did not milk his response for a FOLLOW-UP tweet. Twittering is like a seduction - you need to stay in character but at the same time make the twitter audience want to keep coming back for more. The audience wants validation.

To get rid of twitter Mad Men would be an astronomically idiotoic decision on the part of AMC. Thank you for starting this.

[cgeye]

No one's mentioned the most crucial part of networks possibly extending their characters into the Internet and social networking: Union contracts.

The WGA still has not received the contractually-agreed revenues from new media, a point on which it hinged its strike. Any writers sanctioned by AMC -- not tolerated within the precepts of fair use, but paid by them -- will have the same problems with credit and payment as the webisode writers of Battlestar Galactica. What counts as a view, on Twitter? How do writers get paid - by the tweet? By number of followers? Awards received? If a writer objects to a Twitter portrayal of a character he created, will he have recourse to sue the Twitter writer? AMC?

If there was a solid business reason for AMC to at first discourage character participation on Twitter, I think that was it, and until such contractual matters are hashed out, we won't see the blossoming of characters onto social networks under corporate sponsorship.

[Frank_Adman]

From @Frank_Adman - I think you're ahead of your time with the don_draper thing. Cheers.

[Michael Leis]

The revolution may be still be televised, but you and the handful of other visionaries showed that the social mediation of that programming happens on Twitter.

You showed that people are interested in a larger narrative distributed over many channels. My hopes are these:

1) the account is carried on by a hybrid screenwriter-blogger-participant who can go wherever the audience congregates and add value. They can work within the current narrative of the show without pushing the storyline past the next episode. In the office, they'll probably help the marketing department more than the writing team.

2) Tweets or comments or however people converse with these characters should accompany the broadcast on an alternate channel: preferably with some of the extra bandwidth that will be available in the transition to DTV. If not, live on the Web. Kind of a throwback to MST3K, but community-driven.

[cgeye]

SciFi Network conducted such an experiment 10 years ago with its broadcasts of THE PRISONER incorporating text from live chats from a BBS. Just a data point...

[Derek]

Show his childhood. Bring him back as a kid. So we can see why he is so mad

[iamozma]

Yeah, why can't @dondraper simply tweet the random thoughts Don Draper might have?

I feel like *I* could do that, without betraying story line or depending on story arc.

E.g.,

'How do we get women to *want* to wear stockings?'

Or: 'O'Hara can write rings around Rexroth.'

Not the best, but you see what I mean.

I realize part of Don's appeal is that he is opaque. But tweets can be opaque, and needn't betray someone's genuine inner life.

[sergio mugnaini]

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P.S.: The full report will come out on July 29th.