First off, it’s apparent that AMC wasn’t engaged in actively listening to begin with. I believe @don_draper started the whole business just before August 13th. Twitter feed histories only go back 9 pages which in Don’s case is 8/13, but I seem to recall things starting up a day or two before then.

So that’s nearly two weeks this has been going on.

For a network that’s concerned about a flagship series that’s seen a ratings drop since starting their second season, you’d thing they’d have their ears to every railroad track they could find. That could be accomplished by setting up a watch feed here or an alert here as a poor man’s solution or engaging with a purveyor of fine tools like this or this on the more robust side of things. So that could have been an earlier trigger for the network to engage with the “Mad Men 9.” In the early going through to a few days ago, all of the characters I followed started following me back on Twitter very quickly, so that direct connection you mention wouldn’t have been too hard to establish.

But let’s say for the sake of argument that the boys proved to be too “churlish” and you couldn’t make that direct connect? Then join the conversation as one of the unclaimed characters. Earn trust by playing along with the rules of the game as established to date and make your direct connects there. If intervention is needed, then you can step in and reveal yourself. If not, your presence is already part of the fabric of the situation, so you can keep close tabs moving forward.

FINAL UPDATES: TV critic Aaron Barnhart has a great post on the legal aspects of the situation. And apparently Twitter flinched pretty hard when AMC first approached them on the situation, prematurely yanking the feeds and creating what must have been one hell of a PR fire drill/headache today for the network.

So how should AMC have contacted the rogues to work with them?

While in the long run it stop me from watching the show and being a fan, it certainly paints a picture of AMC and their failure to grasp the nature of social media and user generated content could mean to ENHANCING their brand.

Reference EA and the Tiger Woods “Jesus Shot” video.

In the case of a fictitous character, the copyright holder owns that identity and has the duty to protect it…

If this was AMC’s own folks playing games then that’s unfortunate and one of the issues regarding “social networking,” you can never be sure who you are talking with.

Rather than being like “kids (innocently) mowing your lawn” it’s like someone masquerading as a close friend in preparation for asking for money.

Minimal control over the blogosphere please!