If the term is Greek to you, here’s a video from author and journalist Jeff Howe that’s featured on the site providing some perspective on crowdsourcing.

A St. Louis Business Journal photo of us after launching Elasticity

We had all been at Fleishman-Hillard, one of the largest PR firms in the world, where Brian had built the digital group and Dan and I were senior public relations counselors in the corporate issues practice.

Brian was living digital media in his daily efforts, working on the cutting edge of online and social tools and strategies as they were unfolding, grinding his teeth trying to integrate what he was doing with the traditional PR efforts.

When Dan and I weren’t counseling the likes of UPS, AT&T Enterprise Rent-A-Car, or Emerson Electric on media relations matters, we were spending our downtime learning digital on the fly by creating the seemingly ridiculous American Mustache Institute, which became a viral and ESPN sensation. More important, it served as a virtual Petri dish for us in terms of understanding social media, online content management, community engagement, and the interconnection between traditional PR, social, blogs and search engine optimization (SEO).

In November of 2007, Brian left FH. One week later, the three of us got together at the Tin Can Tavern over really cheap beer and pretty bad food.

We laid out a vision — there was an ongoing sea change in our industry and media overall. I had recently told a client’s global senior management team they wouldn’t be reading hard copies of newspapers within a year and instead using their phones. They scoffed at me.

But the reality was that as a result of consumer information consumption habits, there existed a need for deep integration between digital and traditional strategies, as well as a greater need for advertising-like creative in the PR space to break through clutter. At the time, the integration model really wasn’t being that broadly applied (and ironically, marketing integration still isn’t occurring that commonly today).

Integration, creative thinking, new tools, a fresh approach.

After 13 months of planning, lining up funding and creating a business plan — largely while eating overwhelming volumes of fried chicken at Pat’s Bar in St. Louis’ Dogtown neighborhood — we launched Elasticity on Jan. 1, 2009. We hung our collective hats on a triangulated approach to marketing communications and reputation management, leveraging PR, SEO, and social media in an integrated manner.

It’s only natural, but I think we each had different expectations and hopes going in. I can’t speak for Brian and Dan as I know they each had their unique reasons for going into business. Admirably, Brian wants to set the world on fire and drag St. Louis along with him kicking and screaming. Dan, in his professorial way, wants, “to figure out where this thing is going.”

My interests were in:

• Culture: Over 15 years or so I had seen good cultures and toxic ones and was very focused on creating an environment where people really enjoyed coming to work. It wasn’t a question of whether you wore a three-piece suit, jeans or a Panda suit to work. It didn’t matter if you were 23 or 53. It was all about ideas, enjoying the environment you spend more waking hours in than you do your own home, and feeling collectively satisfied at the end of the day. That’s why the first thing I wrote for our website was our People Principles.
• Creativity: To this day the PR space remains very focused on block and tackle tactics and we don’t look deeper at a challenge, thinking how we can craft it from the beginning in a manner that’s creative, and in and of itself, buzzworthy. I approach every campaign I work on hoping it will be worthy of a national marketing story about its unique approach. It doesn’t always work out that way, but that’s the ideal.
• Integration: I had seen it time and again — companies silo their marketing communications efforts largely due to political wrangling between the direct reports to the CMO.  For some strange reason, it doesn’t seem to matter if a campaign would be 100 times more effective if properly integrated and the budget was shared amongst all the marketing channels. It’s all about turf. I wanted to change this and I still do.

Looking back, it’s been an immensely satisfying three years. We started a digital marketing and public relations concern, which largely relies on what’s perceived to be non-revenue producing income (which couldn’t be more wrong headed), at the depth of the worst recession since the Great Depression. Yikes!

Certainly, there have been immense challenges, both interpersonal and business frustrations, as well as many Andre The Giant-sized bumps in the road. There always are. But overall it’s been a pretty good ride.

I’m fairly certain that we’ve created an environment where people do, in fact, enjoy coming to work. It’s a place where our entire team — we’ve added seven new people in the past year — feel like their opinions matter and are respected. And maybe it’s because we don’t have an in-house counsel — or just because we’re not a bunch of assholes — but when people choose to move on, there’s no ugliness, no one thrown out the door with a box. We’ve enjoyed the ride while we were on it together.

Creatively, it’s been tremendous. While we don’t necessarily get to implement every idea, we try to at the very least deliver them. There’s no leaving a progressive strategy on the cutting room floor for fear a client won’t understand it. We put our best on the table and that’s all I can ask. It’s been remarkably satisfying to see it happen.

And from an integration standpoint, it’s a work in progress. At big companies, we can’t control turf wars between the heads of corporate communications and branding, but we continue to beat the drum. And the nice thing about being small is we can still afford to work with small companies that allow us to create more integrated approaches.

As far as profitability, as the St. Louis Business Journal wrote upon our launch, “They project 12-month billings of $700,000 or more, but expect it may take 18 months to become profitable.” That was pretty close. Each year we’ve had steady growth. In year three we became a million dollar shop as well as being profitable despite still operating in recession times.

Three years ago this week we founded Elasticity and I’d like to thank everyone who helped to make that possible along the way.

There’s been great clients like Charter Communications, Monsanto, Anheuser-Busch/InBev, Stout Industries, Geostellar, Biffle, Toro, Kennelwood Pet Resorts, Expert House Movers, and many others.

But we wouldn’t have those clients — and the great work we are doing on their behalf — without great people including (in order of hiring, even ones who have left):  Angela Cross, Ken Hieronymous, Jessi Stafford, Andy Barnett (now a partner), Christine Ryder, Emma Klues, Courtney Rothman, Mark Florida, Ryan McMullen, Colby Gergen, and Aaron Jacobs.

Three years ago we started this thing. Let’s continue the ride. Thank you.

I commented that if a small business owner is going to invest in Groupon, they must really work the channel after the fact. Much like fishing, you don’t just throw a lure out in the water and have it sit there — you work the lure until you get a bite. Groupon is for reeling customers in, but once they are in, it’s up to the business owner to provide a quality product and great service to ensure you give the customer a reason to return and purchase your product at the full price.

It’s about taking true ownership, being aggressive, seizing opportunities, and understanding that tools are an aide, not an ultimate solution to do your work for you.

“It’s a function of understanding the prospective buyer in order to capitalize on any lead, be it from an ad source like Groupon or a referral,” said Josh Frey, founder of the multi-million-dollar small business OnSalePromos who now coaches prospective small business owners interested in entering the promotional products industry through SwagCoach.com. “You must engage quickly, and the faster you understand the buyer’s needs and build a relationship of trust that you can deliver on your promise, the faster you can make the sale and develop a longlasting relationship.”

St. Louis style pizza - not fit for human consumption

Fast forward to last week when I wrote a piece called “St. Louis Doesn’t Suck” for Forbes, which discussed marketing solutions for the St. Louis metro-region.

Towards the end of the piece, I made a comment about St. Louis style pizza, an atrocious concoction featuring a cracker thin crust and Velveeta-like provel cheese that, for those who did not grow up in St. Louis, is not fit for human consumption.

Many aspects of the reaction to the piece surprised me, none more so than the 60-plus comments focusing on the pizza, which was more of a throwaway than anything else.

But Vito LaFata III saw an opportunity.

LaFata is a second generation owner of Vito’s Italian Pizzeria & Ristorante in St. Louis, and as the name of his restaurant suggests, he serves pizza. Really good pizza it turns out.

He decided to send me an email:

Caught your article in Forbes….Caught the end of course about St. Louis pizza. I know you were referring to that crappy Imo’s style pizza….But if you haven’t tried our pizza, I’d like to extend a personal invite….please tell me when a good time my driver can deliver a pizza to your office, on the house…

Pizza's from Vito's in St. Loui

Of course, being an overweight American, I responded that I’d love to try his pizza, requesting my favorite toppings, sausage and mushrooms. And Vito delivered, literally and figuratively. He sent over two pies: a large sausage and mushroom original style pizza, as well as a Sicilian style pizza with fresh tomatoes, Italian sausage, and mozzarella cheese.

Clearly, something clicked.

I had moved here six years ago and was perplexed by our region’s inability to tell those outside of St. Louis that it was a great place to live and work.  So, about four years ago, I pitched much of the structural marketing tenants of St. Louis Doesn’t Suck to someone who was in a position to actually do something about it. His response: “Let me tell you why you couldn’t be more wrong.”

He just didn’t get it. It was an insular reaction from someone in a region that has historically behaved in an insular manner.

And if we do, in fact, want to tell the outside world about the strengths of St. Louis, to get new companies to move here, keep home grown talent here, and have young people graduate from college and flock to the region — we need to erase this mindset. We need to forget our region’s history of inactivity and demonstrated unwillingness to collaborate, and create a new model.

And for now, all I can say is — we’re working on a true community effort, for the people by the people. Elasticity will play a role, but hopefully, so will thousands of other St. Louisans.

Below is my my post from Forbes.

———————-

ST. LOUIS DOESN’T SUCK

I’ve lived a somewhat nomadic existence in my adult life, moving from Richmond to Miami to New Orleans to New York to Raleigh to St. Petersburg.  Six years ago my wife and I reluctantly moved to St. Louis but very quickly found it to be a great place to live, work, and raise small people.

St. Louis has its problems like anywhere else, but there’s a lot to like: good schools, nice parks, great public institutions, competitive sports teams, strong corporate base, the world’s largest mustache (Gateway Arch), and plenty of places that make delicious beer.

In the last two weeks, however, two stories have taken pot shots at my adopted hometown.

First there was a farcical piece in The Onion that the Labor Department reported 4 million new U.S. jobs in October, “though government officials hastened to add that the new positions are all located in the St. Louis…” I love The Onion but it essentially delivers the underlying message that people outside of “The Lou” think it’s not so hot.

Then there was something a bit uglier.  Yahoo! Health reported St. Louis to be among the 10 saddest cities in America based on suicide and unemployment rates, the percentage of households that use antidepressants, and other factors.

Oye gevault!

I’ve got to believe St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, the Regional Chamber & Growth Association (RCGA), or St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley can’t like pieces like these.

The trouble being that nearly every political or civic entity in the region working to fix metro-St. Louis’ reputation is doing it on their own, in a silo, with little coordination with other partners. There have been some quiet efforts to galvanize private sector forces, but nothing has materialized primarily due to the political infighting that seemingly lies beneath the surface.

Why do you think that despite being a relatively safe place to live, St. Louis crime statistics are listed by the FBI as being four times higher than the national average and the city is routinely noted as one of America’s most dangerous? It’s because as the city and surrounding county battle for turf, they refuse to do what most other major metro areas do in combining regional crime statistics which leads to better rankings.

Thank you Mssrs. Slay and Dooley.

So with all of this in mind, as my holiday gift to St. Louis, I’m going to outline a strategy for altering St. Louis’ reputation on the national landscape.

St. Louis Doesn’t Suck

Let’s begin with the foundation — one that’s a bit edgy and disrupts the same conservative Midwestern sensibilities that caused the city to foolishly pass on hosting Red Bull’s popular Flugtag event a few years back.

You see, despite a recent St. Louis Post-Dispatch report citing that the city attracted more young people than it lost for the first time in eons, the city has a long way to go in drawing the younger workforce that leading edge employers crave. And as my partner Brian Cross wrote on his blog, natives are still looking elsewhere for post-graduate jobs.

After all, a recent Stanford or Univ. of Miami graduate doesn’t really care if St. Louis is “Perfectly Centered. Remarkably Connected.” They want to live and work somewhere that has a thriving downtown with a great night life and is perceived to be progressive.

Which brings us to the St. Louis Doesn’t Suck campaign, focusing on delivering four key messages that support any thriving metro area:

• St. Louis has affordable housing: According to the Cost of Living Index Calculator, greater St. Louis has the lowest cost of living among the nation’s 20 largest metropolitan areas for 2010.

• St. Louis has a collection of outstanding education resources: The cities of Clayton and Ladue have two of the finest and well-funded public school systems in the U.S., there is a nice collection of high ranking private and parochial schools, and a several leading colleges including Washington University — regularly ranked in the top 10 nationally.
  

  Danforth Plant Science Center

• St. Louis has a strong employment base: Did you know there are more plant scientists in the St. Louis region than any other concentrated area in the world? We do a great job telling each other that here — just not the outside world. But thanks to the likes of Monsanto, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, and a host of mid-size and smaller plant science related entities in the region — and the fact that the city is located within 500 miles of 90 percent of the U.S. corn crop — St. Louis is arguably the center of plant science research and innovation worldwide.  Add that to the fact the region is also home to 21 of the Fortune 1000 companies with leading employers like Anheuser-Busch/InBev, Peabody Energy, Emerson Electric, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Boeing, Mastercard, Nestle-Purina, and Build-A-Bear — and the case is easy that there are good jobs to be had.

• St. Louis has rich cultural resources: Let’s start with the World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals and the team’s fine downtown ballpark. Then there’s one of the top ranked zoos in the U.S. that also happens to be free of charge to enter, a symphony that is highly respected worldwide, one of the largest urban parks in the U.S., a very healthy and diverse collection of restaurants, tremendous live music venues, acclaimed art and history museums as well as a City Museum that is beyond explanation, and the list goes on.

Not sucking at all thus far. But now comes the hard part. How do we best deliver these messages? It takes a comprehensive approach that not only touches the manner in which people seek and find information today, but then compels them to take action.

St. Louis Doesn’t Suck harnesses the most meaningful marketing communications channels and surrounds working adults ages 22 to 55, delivering a consistent message that St. Louis has the housing, education, employment and cultural resources that encompass a great place to live, work, visit, and play.

The tools the program leverages include:

• Digital centerpiece: While the Regional Chamber has tried, there’s no digital centerpiece or website that represents the region in a way that makes you want to stay on the site for more than 30 seconds. It’s an ADHD world people, and to keep an audience — especially today’s 21 – 35-year-old young professional — you need engaging and fresh content that is comprised of the people and entities that enrich the region telling the story in first person.  No one really wants to read, “Situated at the confluence of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois rivers, we have a tradition of leadership in transportation, distribution, and logistics.”

• Video speaks volumes: A strong message in 60 seconds can potentially say far more than 1,500 words of text. Let’s see CEOs George Paz of Express-Scripts, Hugh Grant of Monsanto, Energizer’s Ward Klein talking about their vision. How about young employees from Arch Coal, HOK, or Brian Cave showing people their favorite haunts around town?  Remember the “I’m a Mormon” campaign from the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints? Very strong stuff.

• Social media: Yes, have a Facebook page. Sure, a Twitter account is nice. More important, however, you’ve got to understand how to use these tools other than to simply have an account or page, like the Regional Chamber’s Facebook page that has 140-some fans. How about livestreaming a free concert from the Pageant music venue on Facebook; or get a group of CEOs from mid-size companies engaging in a Google+ Hangout with some top college students talking about what they are looking for from the local workforce; or take suggestions from city residents via Twitter (and actually use one of them) on how to improve a public park.  Just spend some time looking at how Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak engages constituents on Twitter. It’s not your standard press feeder.

• PR: Once you’re doing some of these things and there’s an actual story of change to tell, take some leaders of influence on the road in tandem and visit some national media. And by “leaders of influence,” I don’t necessarily mean the Mayor and head of the Regional Chamber. It’s about the sum of the city’s parts — a coalition of leading CEOs, the heads of the five local angel investors group,  a handful of leading entrepreneurs.  Or, how about pitching a recurring HuffingtonPost column from the mayor or a collection of local CEOs? Why not ask InBev CEO Carlos Brito or one of his top lieutenants to write a column on beer.

• Mobile: There are more cellular phones in the U.S. than there are people, and at the very least any centralized website for a coordinated effort should be mobile enabled. But think bigger: an app that serves as a virtual tour guide, has push notifications for events, and includes searchable capabilities for activities meeting specific criteria.

• Paid media: Look at a small, controlled program of paid media — traditional and digital. How about a Letter to America ad in the Wall St. Journal about the needs of American business co-signed by a group of local CEOs, but more important use Google Adwords and Facebook cost-per-click to drive to engaging video content telling first person stories about the region.

• SEO: I saved this for last because online search is the magic bullet. It’s what everything drives towards. And if you don’t have an SEO component as part of an integrated marketing plan, you lose. Think of it this way: you own a business in Miami and you’re tired of all of the fair weather sports fans there so you tell your director of facilities it’s time to find a new headquarters town. What does that director do? He puts together a due diligence committee and they all start doing research — online — using search engines and terms like “best cities to work” and “best cities to live” and looking at tax incentives and quality of life, etc. In short, all the other stuff you’re doing in the marketing channels are filling the SEO funnel that needs to be filled, stacked, stuffed and overflowing with good news.

St. Louis isn’t perfect — the local  style of pizza is horrendous, our NFL football team should not be playing in a dome, the airport is an embarrassment, and the traffic lights aren’t timed.  More important, we still struggle to create, attract, and retain more skilled workers.  It’s an old-time, Mississippi River-based manufacturing economy that’s yet to fully reinvent itself that last year lost 14 percent of its professional services companies (law firms, architects, ad agencies).

Without question, St. Louis does not suck. But with the exception of one very smart tourism campaign developed by the CVB, we typically do a terrible job of externally articulating what those offerings are.

Perhaps by stepping out of our comfort zone, moving beyond silly turf battles, and developing a comprehensive approach to marketing the area, St. Louis can better promote a region that has much to offer.

Happy holidays.

But if there were a granddaddy of them all, arguably it may be sexual misconduct – which reputationally is possibly the most lethal accusation leveled at any person or organization.

Joe Paterno

In the past few weeks, the American public has watched as sexual misconduct accusations may have ended both the presidential hopes of Republican front-runner Herman Cain; and now, seemingly, the career of Joe Paterno, the winningest and perhaps most respected football coach in college history.

Interestingly enough, each incident seemingly shares a commonality beyond sexual misconduct. Neither Penn State University nor the Herman Cain Campaign had a strategy in place to effectively manage their respective crisis, either as a communication issue, or in the case of Penn State, as a criminal issue.

At Penn State, former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, the longtime right hand to Paterno, has been charged with some 40 counts of sexual abuse of young boys who he worked with through the Second Mile foundation that was established to help needy children.

Reportedly, school officials including Paterno learned of possible issues as early as 2002, three years after Sandusky had left the school as a coach but was still spending time on campus. Paterno was informed by then graduate assistant Mike McQueary, and reported it to his superior, athletics director Tim Curley.

Herman Cain

From all accounts, however, it seems no one took any action, and today you reportedly have at least eight emotionally damaged boys, two Penn State officials including Curley facing criminal charges,  Paterno and the university president were officially relieved of their duties last night, and the coach has also hired PR counsel for ongoing support.

Clearly, there was a lack of institutional oversight in the case. That goes without saying. But from a communications standpoint, the university has so poorly managed the flow of information and there can only be one answer. They did not have, nor execute, a crisis communications plan that would have helped school officials better manage the processes around a scandal that will subsequently have long-term implications on the institution’s reputation.

Cain’s case is surprisingly similar in terms of how poorly communications has been managed.

At least four women are now claiming that Cain, while leading the National Restaurant Association, inappropriately propositioned or touched them. And while Cain’s chief of staff was busy making one of the worst guy with a mustache smoking a cigarette campaign commercials ever, his boss was flip-flopping his stories, denying, and saying he didn’t even recall that at least one of the women was given a settlement from the NRA that included one year’s salary.

What a trainwreck. Welcome to the big leagues Mr. Cain, where it doesn’t matter whether it’s other Republican challengers or future Democratic foes that are leaking this out. Blame is simply a stall tactic and if you are going to run for President of the United States, everything is on the table and you had better have a plan in place to manage the message – which clearly, Cain did not.

Whether sexual misconduct is indeed the granddaddy of accusations or not, Cain and Paterno are testament to the reality that it’s taken down nearly every person or organization ever associated with it.

Even President Bill Clinton is referred to as a “Teflon” president for dodging the kill shot from the Monica Lewinsky-Paula Jones-Gennifer Flowers sexual hijinks. But the thing is, he didn’t escape unscathed. Those scandals will always taint our memories of his presidency.

Joe Paterno has now entered retirement and Herman Cain will both soon be joining him — Cain’s due to his action, and Paterno due inaction. And while each case obviously veers well beyond just communications planning, it was a lack thereof that catapulted them to a level that could have been avoided and greatly limited the damage.

The amount of money involved in college and professional sports is rather mind boggling.

St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols has been unwilling to agree to a contract because his team offered him $19 million annually and he’d rather have $23 million. The Dallas Cowboys were just deemed the most valuable National Football League team at a mere $1.8 billion. Tiger Woods, who’s career is seemingly in a death spiral made, gulp, $75 million between May 2010 – May 2011.

If not for playing in Green Bay, Aaron Rodgers would be most marketable

So for all our discussion about a down economy — somehow, somewhere, consumers are managing to help make people in sports entertainment remain very, very wealthy.

But from a marketing perspective, which of these “people” do we most desire to see hocking products? Which athletes inspire us to open our wallets? Who should companies and brands most want to enrich for endorsing their products?

Beauty, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. But here’s the American athletes who I believe to be most marketable, as well as those who I’d run from.

My Top 5

1. Tom Brady: He near flawlessly plays the quarterback position for one of the best and most visible teams (New England Patriots) in the most visible American sport (NFL). He’s good looking, married to a super model, never says the wrong thing, and as a result, made some $30 million last year.
2. Aaron Rodgers: If he played quarterback for the New York Jets and not in Green Bay, the recent Super Bowl MVP might well be the most marketable athlete in America. But his off-field workload is picking up. As Dale Buss of BrandChannel recently wrote, General Mills is featuring the Green Bay Packers Super Bowl MVP quarterback on boxes of Wheaties for a month — but only in Wisconsin. However, as you can hear in this recent humor interview I conducted with Rodgers for the American Mustache Institute — he’s gold.
3. Shaun White: Want to reach Millennials or people who are into extreme sports? There’s a reason White made $8.8 million last year. The message — don’t underestimate extreme sports or red heads.
4. Peyton Manning: Busted neck and all, and despite playing in Indianapolis, Manning earned an estimated $30 million last year. Yes, he’s getting on in years, but when healthy, he’s still an elite quarterback and says and does the right things on and off the field.
5. Michael Phelps: He smoked what? Oh, yeah, well, who cares? At least, apparently not corporate America as the Olympic swimming champion took home $53.3 million in 2010 earnings. That’s $53 million for a guy who competes in a sport that no one really cares about and roughly seven people watch live during competition.
6. Michael Vick: Dog killer. Felon. Say what you want about him, but Americans believe in redemption, as I’ve written prior relative to Vick. He’s doing and saying the right things, and winning tends to cure all for better or worse. Just ask Nike, who recently re-signed Vick to a new deal.

Who I’d Avoid

1. Lance Armstrong: I don’t care that he earned $15.3 million last year. A cloud of uncertainty, doping allegations, and sagging relevance (at least to U.S. audiences) surrounds him. Plus, can we please chill with the unnecessary biking shorts? I beg you biking community — the rest of us just don’t need to see that.
2. LeBron James: Due to James’ petulant ESPN special announcing his signing with the Miami Heat last year, he’s the most hated man amongst the current NBA greats, which as a league continues to struggle in cities that do not have league franchises. It’s a shame as he’s may be the most talented basketball player in history when it’s all said and done.
3. Jimmie Johnson: He embodies what NASCAR wants to be — smart, clean-cut, good-natured, appreciative of sponsors, and most important, a winner. The problem is, fans hate Johnson for the same reasons he should be so bankable — being bright, clean-cut, good natured, and a winner.
4. Curtis Granderson: Curtis who? Oh yeah, the guy who’s having one of the greatest statistical New York Yankee seasons in recent memory while playing for the most visible team in his sport. He even has a great foundation. But ask non-Yankees fans if they know who he is and you get crickets.
5. Tiger Woods: While it would seem his personal problems are a thing of the past, at least for now his play has not improved for a number of reasons including injury, arrogance, disinterest in engaging a reputable swing coach, et al. Two years from now he might once again be the best golfer on the planet, but for now he’s best left to his own devices and enormous savings account.
6. Any American Male Tennis Player: No one cares, and if you do, move to France.

My “Two On Two” partner Jason Falls is incredibly lazy, so instead of debating issues with him, this week I chatted with Rosanna Fiske, the chair and chief executive officer of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and director of the Global Strategic Communications master’s program in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Florida International University in Miami.

We discussed how PR is faring in the down economy, the Burson-Marsteller / Facebook fiasco, the glut of new online reputation defenders like Reputation.com (check out this piece she just penned in The Hill), the abuse of news releases, and what’s new at PRSA.

*this blog entry was originally posted on Forbes.com

Two years ago I was talking to an executive of an NFL franchise. Twitter was just blowing up and I counseled him that the team should be harnessing their players’ burgeoning interests in getting on the social media tool as a means of connecting with fans.

Set the tone with your employees, teach them how to use it, and you’ll potentially have a quality brand ambassador.

His response to me was, “There’s no way in hell we’re letting our players on Twitter.”

And I thought, “Man, he doesn’t get it. He has no choice. His players will be on, and he’ll have lost the battle before it even begins.”

All of this brings us to the case of Rashard Mendenhall, the talented yet troubled Pittsburgh Steelers running back.

You see, like many of us, Mendenhall likes to use his Twitter account. And he seems like a genuine, thoughtful young guy, bent on not unfairly passing judgment on people, randomly speaking his mind like any other 24-year-old.

Clearly, however, no one ever counseled him as to how he should use it, as was evidenced by his Tweets following the death of Osama bin Laden. He wrote, “It’s amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We’ve only heard one side . . .” He also tweeted of Sept. 11: “I just have a hard time believing a plane could take a skyscraper down demolition style.”

Whether Mendenhall had a point or not, there’s just some subjects you don’t touch without damaging your personal brand — especially when they go against the grain of what 99.9 percent of Americans believe.

And so not only did he damage himself, but along with it, the brands he represents: the Steelers, the National Football League, and his principal endorser, Champion athletic apparel.

The fallout was relatively predictable: a massive swath of national media coverage, widespread scorn, and of course, Champion dumped him.

Welcome to Tiger Woodsville Rashard! Champion said it was, “ending our business relationship” with Mendenhall since the athletic brand doesn’t think he “can appropriately represent Champion.”

In short, his personal brand became an unfortunate anchor weighing down the apparel line he was representing.

One would expect Mendenhall to react by being contrite, saying he learned from his situation and hoped to redeem himself, right? Naaah! He and his agent decided it made more sense to sue Champion for violating his contract.

“For Rashard, this really is not about the money,” Steven Thompson, an attorney representing Mendenhall, told the Associated Press. “This is about whether he can express his opinion.”

Now I’m no lawyer — although I did play one on “L.A. Law” opposite Corbin Bersen –  but when an employee says something stupid that embarrasses the brand the employee represents, said employer can relieve he or she of their duties in a heartbeat.

Sports law professor Jeffrey Standen seemed to agree, “An athlete contracts away his free speech rights in signing his endorsement deal.”

Ya think?

Look, Mendenhall has had a tough offseason due to no one other than himself. SteelersDepot, a popular fan blog, is even speculating he’ll soon be an ex-Steeler as the team’s owners, the Rooney family, has a low tolerance for embarrassing the team’s brand.

What Mendenhall’s agent needs to do is to wake up and consider the longterm personal brand of his client. He should be counseling his player is to step back and let this entire situation pass. Call it some toxicity relief. Just get on the field and have the best season of his young career.

To quote the late Issac Hayes’ background singers in the song “Shaft,” most important — for now at least — is for Mendenhall to just “Shut yo mouth!”

In our last installment of Forbes “Two On Two,” Jason and I discussed the brand marketing fallout from recent doping accusations made against cyclist Lance Armstrong and examined findings from an Arbitron/Edison Research study on social media use.

This time around we look at the recent sale of MySpace and discuss the implications of a recent Georgia court ruling on the legality of anonymous online posting.

Thanks for watching and please let us know what you think in the comments.