Carri Bugbee is the principal and founder of Big Deal PR. An entrepreneur, seasoned writer and project manager with experience at great agencies like Wieden + Kennedy, Carri is also the person behind @PeggyOlson on Twitter. Not only has she managed to keep the unofficial Twitter account for a fictional character from the popular AMC show Mad Men, but she has done it so well that it won her a Shorty Award.

I was able to do a live “Twinterview” with Carri (done fully via Twitter, tracked by the hashtag Peggy). Thanks to everyone that followed it live!

The edited transcript is below. For the unedited version, see the post at Socialnerdia.

Esteban Contreras: Hi Carri, nice day for a live Twinterview, isn’t it?
Carri Bugbee: It’s raining in Portland, so it’s a good time to be warmed by the glow of my computer monitor for a Twinterview.

Esteban Contreras: I must admit I often confuse your name with @PeggyOlson and vice versa. What’s it like to be linked to this character?
Carri Bugbee: It’s been a wild ride. @PeggyOlson is a great character on MadMen, one I think that is second only to Don. Tweeting for her is fun and challenging.

Esteban Contreras: I’d say Peggy is my second favorite too. How has your professional life changed since you started tweeting and thinking like Peggy?
Carri Bugbee: I was joking in early 2008 about working on my social media MBA. Being a MadMen Tweeter was like working on a thesis. Building and managing thousands of followers for @PeggyOlson on top of managing many other Twitter accts was great experience

Esteban Contreras: You always answer tweets in character (i.e. Super Bowl as Tupperware). Do you ever delete tweets that needed a revision?
Carri Bugbee: I deleted first tweets I ever wrote for @PeggyOlson when I was just thinking it’d be a lark ’cause they were too snarky. I rarely delete tweets for Peggy now unless I hit “send” prematurely or tweet from the wrong acct! I kinda have her down.

Esteban Contreras: If you could go back in “Mad Men Time” to give one tweet of advice to the “real” Peggy Olson at Sterling Cooper … what would you say?
Carri Bugbee: I’d tell Peggy to avoid sleeping her way to the top. That just seems to derail her. She’s obviously talented. That’s enough.

Esteban Contreras: Do you think Peggy would be fired if caught tweeting? I mean, imagine what kind of “social media policy” Sterling Cooper has…
Carri Bugbee: Since @PeggyOlson is a writer and a youngster in the creative dept, I think she’d be the first to tweet. It’d be expected. Peggy is always looking for an angle, a way to get ahead, so I think she’d embrace any new thing that’d give her an advantage

Esteban Contreras: It seems like we need more like Peggy. Why don’t we see more women creatives at advertising agencies?
Carri Bugbee: I’ve had my own company for so long (BigDealPR.com), that I don’t know that there aren’t more women at ad agencies. I worked in a big agency late 80s and it was DEFINITELY the boys club (not so different from Peggy experience). I hope that has changed.

Esteban Contreras: Congratulations on the success of Big Deal PR. You’ve embraced social media. Is old school PR and the press release fading away?
Carri Bugbee: Depends who you talk to. There are many PR pros who haven’t done the work to get up to speed in social media. There are others can’t live without it. Some say press release is dead; you should just tweet at journalists. I think press release has morphed. Needs to be more SEO-friendly. What’s most different about PR now is that in old days it wasn’t “public” relations at all, it was press relations. Now it’s public.

Esteban Contreras: Is the idea of “conversations” with customers here to stay or will brands have to start own @TwelpForce to handle so much?
Carri Bugbee: Yes and yes! I think we’ll look back on traditional advertising in just a few years and think of it as just so much spam. In the impending era of powerful micro-targeting, even ads will seem like conversations, and we’ll have REAL convos with consumers. I think conversational marketing, social media, Web 2.0, whatever you wanna call it will fundamentally change the structure of marketing business.

Esteban Contreras: I agree. Many are skeptics and only consider the logistical side of it. I believe conversations are what people need.
Carri Bugbee: We’ll all be engagement experts of sorts (or in related support jobs) with very different skill sets. Agencies will run 24/7.

Esteban Contreras: In Mad Men, Sterling Cooper lets go of Mohawk Airlines to seek AA. It seemed to be both strategic and dishonorable. What do you think of client relationships?
Carri Bugbee: Yeah, that was a calculated risk when Sterling Cooper dumped Mohawk Airlines for AA. It ended up biting them in the ass. In a social mediaworld where you have to know clients VERY well to work with them, that would be harder to do. Successful agencies will have much deeper entanglement with clients. No more “big ideas” based on shallow relationships.

Esteban Contreras: Some say Mad Men glorifies chauvinism. I think it exposes a reality of the 60s that is often ignored. What do you think?
Carri Bugbee: I don’t think MadMen glorifies chauvinism, I think it likely downplays it. @PeggyOlson would have had it even worse. Until I saw MadMen, I never thought that hard about 60s-era chauvinism. I think it’s a great reality check for us.

Esteban Contreras: AMC did great “Mad Men Yourself” campaign. Their Twitter account is just links to blog though. Any advice for their Twefforts?
Carri Bugbee: Love MadMenYourself.com campaign created by the cats at Deep Focus (@ischafer, @christianborges). Check my background! That was a great way to keep the convo rolling (and focused) on Twitter after the fan-based effort started it last year. That said, AMC could be doing so much more with Twitter. As could most media properties. I’ve yet to see official accounts shine. But AMC’s blog and the MadMen Web site is very robust, there’s lotsa great stuff there. And I love their iPhone app! Great previews!

Esteban Contreras: Sponsored tweeting is growing. Am I crazy to think that social media brands might also pay for ANTI-competitor tweets?
Carri Bugbee: That’s an interesting idea. I’m cultivating ideas and best practices for sponsored tweeting, but haven’t discussed them yet. As the FTC gets more involved with social media, may be decided in landmark court cases. But they’ve barely addressed blogging. I expect that sponsoring anti-competitor tweets could fall under the classification of making advertising comparison claims.

Esteban Contreras: What do you think about sarcastic and dark-side tweeting (ie @BadPeggyOlson , @BogusBogusky and @FSJ )?
Carri Bugbee: I LOVE fake, “dark side” tweeters. They’re often more entertaining than real ones. My personality is more snarky than Peggy.

Esteban Contreras: Haha. Yeah, I love the “dark siders” too.. Ok, moving on to the last question Peggy has had interesting journey to become insightful copywriter in a tough environment. How have you evolved along with her?
Carri Bugbee: If I worked in ‘63, I might be a lot like @PeggyOlson. Smart, earnest, hard-working, aspiring to write. I relate. Peggy But I was already a marketer for 20 years whenPeggy came along, so can’t say I’ve evolved with her. My understanding of Twitter as a medium and what can do with it has DEFINITELY evolved. It’s still nascent. More to come!

Esteban Contreras: Thanks for your time and awesome answers! And as millions of automated DMs say, I look forward to your tweets
Carri Bugbee: Ha, ha! That’s retweetable for sure. Doing the Twinterview about @PeggyOlson and MadMen was fun.