Going Places with Personal Branding

Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success is a solid, relevant, timely, and easy-to-read book about personal branding. It is targeted at young adults, but people of different ages in the following 3 groups might enjoy it:

1. Anyone who is confused or clueless about today's internet
2. Anyone interested in bettering themselves in the 'workplace'
3. Anyone interested in learning more about social media and marketing

I personally believe that most young adults should already know much of what makes up this book, but since that is not the case, I'm glad that someone from my generation actually got a book published on the topic. The book is well-organized and it has a lot of insightful and practical information.

Many older people would probably greatly benefit from this book, but unfortunately, some of them will not take it very seriously. The fact that the author is young might make him seem less than credible to someone who has 'paid his dues' and often buys self-help books at FedEx Kinko's. Such a person might not know what to make of Wordpress, podcasts, or Twitter. On the other hand, to a 25 year-old tech-geek with a marketing degree, such as myself, Dan seems approachable, tech-savvy, and normal.

And as the Miami Herald put it, Dan's youth gives him a "competitive edge".

Reading books like this will not get you a brand spanking new job or a raise but it will give you ideas to work hard for either one.  Some examples of the most interesting topics are: marketing/PR principles applied to you as a brand, the power of word of mouth, the importance of perception, and the breakthroughs of social media. There are also some tips such as how to get in touch with reporters, find things online, and back up a blog.

Dan's story is probably what most attracted me to his book and I really think he is living proof that personal branding can help you in what he calls "ultradynamic environments". If we all are really just as good as our last assignment or project, then Dan is definitely going places.

It can't be bad to listen to people who are going places.