One of my favorite TV shows is AMC's MadMen, that paeon to the advertising industry of the early 1960s,when (mostly) men smoked and drank and came up with concepts tobrand businesses and sell products. Last season, several episodesrevolved around Sterling Cooper's launch of atelevision department. At first, they're not sure what to dowith it. The department head is overworked, underpaid anddisrespected. When he can't keep up the pace, agency brass triesto fob off script reviews to the curvaceous officemanager. And top dog Don Draper sometimes has a tough sellpersuading clients of the importance of adding television totheir media mix. Sterling Cooper even makes a point of hiringa couple of young guys to keep up with the new cool medium.

This sounds familiar, if you replace "television department"with "social media."

Throw away everything you know about customer outreach, timemanagement and building a brand. Over the past year, social media(SM) has changed the landscape of all these areas ofproperty-casualty insurance agency operation, from how you manageyour employees to staying in touch with your customers.