Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself (Que Biz-Tech) [Paperback]

Erik Deckers (Author), Kyle Lacy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 27, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0789747278 | ISBN-13: 978-0789747273 | Edition: 1

Use Social Media to Build a Great Personal Brand–and a Great Career!

 

Need to demonstrate more value to customers or employers? Want a new job or career? Use social media to build the powerful personal brand that gets you what you want! In Branding Yourself, two leading social media consultants show how to use today’s social media platforms to attract new business and job opportunities you’ll never find any other way. Erik Deckers and Kyle Lacy show you how to supercharge all your business and personal relationships…demonstrate that you are the best solution to employers’ or partners’ toughest problems…become a recognized thought leader…and translate your online network into great jobs, great projects, and a great career!

 

Discover how to:

• Build an authentic storyline and online identity that gets you the right opportunities

• Choose the best social media tools for your personal goals

• Blog your story boldly and effectively

• Promote your events, accomplishments, victories…and even defeats and lessons learned

• Integrate online and offline networking to get more from both

• Reach people with hiring authority and budgets on LinkedIn

• Use Twitter to share the ideas and passions that make you uniquely valuable

• Launch an online branding program that really gets noticed

• Avoid “killer” social networking mistakes

• Leverage your online “expert” status to become a published author or public speaker

• Measure the success of your social media branding

• Get new projects or jobs through your online friends and followers

 

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Branding Yourself

 

"Branding Yourself is a good beginner's guide on how to build an online presence using social networks and blogs that will turn you into a thought leader or expert or just get you a job."

–Dan Schawbel, #1 International Bestselling Author of Me 2.0

 

"The biggest problem most people have with embracing the power of online networking and personal brand building is they don't know where to start. Erik Deckers and Kyle Lacy take out the guesswork and roll the dice with platforms to find the right combination for you in this book. The book is a recipe for success...your success."

 –Jason Falls, SocialMediaExplorer.com

 

 “In this exceedingly useful book, Erik Deckers and Kyle Lacy provide step-by-step guidance for building and maintaining powerful personas. With wit, wisdom, and numerous expert tips, Branding Yourself is the new roadmap for navigating the sometimes complex world of personal branding. If your best marketing plan is you (and it is), then Branding Yourself should be your playbook.”

 –Jay Baer, Coauthor of The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter, and More Social

 

"Our parents taught us to find a great job with benefits, put money toward retirement, buy a home, and work hard, and you'll reap the benefits. Our parents were wrong. The job market was downsized; the retirement account was ransacked; the house lost its value; and working hard has only put you in the unemployment line. Those who personally branded themselves were able to capitalize on the down-turned economy, and their businesses exploded. Erik Deckers and Kyle Lacy are providing you the blueprint for kicking off your brand and effectively leveraging online technologies to transform your future. [This book is] a must read."

–Douglas Karr, Founder of the Marketing Technology blog, CEO of DK New Media, and Author of Corporate Blogging for Dummies

 

"In an environment filled with philosophy, platitudes, and '30,000-foot views,' Erik Deckers and Kyle Lacy give us a refreshing how-to guide for actually doing something meaningful through social media. Here's a trustworthy book to help you (and me) take real action to leverage emerging tools to create customers and make them happy!"

–Trey Pennington, Entrepreneur, Story Prospector, Author of Spitball Marketing

About the Author

Erik Deckers is the co-owner and vice president of creative services of Professional Blog Service, a ghost blogging and social media agency. He has been blogging since 1997 and speaks widely on social media topics. He is also a newspaper columnist and award-winning playwright.

 

Kyle Lacy is founder and CEO of Brandswag, a digital marketing firm working with businesses large and small. His blog, KyleLacy.com, has been featured on The Wall Street Journal online and many other blogs. He is also constantly ranked in many top blog sites around the world, most recently AdAge 150.

 

Deckers and Lacy coauthored Twitter Marketing For Dummies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Que Publishing; 1 edition (December 27, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789747278
• ISBN-13: 978-0789747273
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 0.7 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #635,574 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is about self promotion, but also about Internet Marketing in general. Two thumbs up! January 22, 2011

By Jeff Lippincott VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

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!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read February 7, 2011

By Nathan Frampton

Format:Paperback

A must read for anyone trying to get a job or their career to the next level. No only was it fun and easy read, I am not aware of a better book that deals with personal branding via social media in such a direct and easy to digest manner. Business schools should require that all students read it. I am looking forward to more books by these dynamic and forward thinking authors.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great new resource December 27, 2010

By Melanie Audette

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Indianapolis social media experts Erik Deckers and Kyle P. Lacy have put together a great resource for those wishing to make the most of social media. Particularly recommended for those new to the possibilities that online networking offer. Expand your job search, make connections through a unique and fast growing channel. Do it better by consulting this book.