I loved it. The title was good, but I thought it would have been better if "self promotion" had been included in it somewhere. Quite a while ago, back in 1997, I purchased and read
101 Ways To Promote Yourself: Tricks Of The Trade For Taking Charge Of Your Own Success which was all about self promotion and devoted just one chapter of 101 chapters to the Internet. I still love that book since so much of the theory behind it is still applicable today. However, the way to do things now is on the Internet, not through the print media and snail mail. That's where the instant book being reviewed comes in.
Branding yourself is a neat book. It is written by two guys who decided they wanted to get better known, better thought of, and develop connections or relationships with people so they would not get pidgeon holed in one opportunity and be stuck there since they don't know all that many people. While it is great to brand yourself so you have something to promote, personally I am turned off by the term "branding." I like to think more in terms of focusing on something so you can ultimately be considered an expert or authority on what you do. Yes, this is branding, but it's also a strategy regarding how to go about making something successful whether it be a person, a business, or something else that can be marketed to make money.
The focus of this book is to help someone better promote THEMSELVES. However, most of what is discussed here is equally applicable to promoting a professional services firm or other similar small business. And much of what is discussed here can be adapted so the marketer of any small business can grow his or her company very well on a limited budget.
Probably the main reason I liked this book so much was the approach the authors took to present social media marketing to the reader. Social media marketing has been around for a while now, and if a book simply lists tools and techniques the social media marketer can use, then I don't rate such a book very highly when I review it these days. But when the book feels more like a case study as this one does, it is novel and definitely worth a read. Maybe in a few years it won't be considered such hot stuff, but today it's a pretty good book.
The only downer I'll include in this review is that I would have liked the book better if Chapter 6 on Facebook had been left out. I'm not a fan of Facebook. I think it is overrated as a marketing tool, and I don't think it really ads that much to a marketing effort. But it is a popular Web site and I suppose to leave it out of the discussion when talking about building an Internet Presence would be bad.
So if you want to promote yourself so you might find or get a better job, then this book is for you. If you are a professional services firm (solo practice), then this book is for you. If you are a small business owner and want to read a case study regarding marketing on the Internet, then this book is for you. Don't let the book's title scare you from reading it. It's about self promotion, but also about Internet Marketing in general. It's about how to use today's Internet resources to attract job opportunities and new business. 5 stars!
