Thursday, December 3, 2009

Me 2.0 Build A Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success by Dan Schwebel

Me 2.0 Build A Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success by Dan Schawbel


Dan Schawbel is describing how to create a complete social media presence for individuals. He calls this a personal brand. Companies, organizations, and recruiters now have a dearth of resumes and personal information available all over the internet. This book is aimed at people in their twenties who are just starting in their careers. However, most of the content is relevant to people in general.



There is a certain irony in reading this book. The word me in the title really does not say what the book is all about. It is about becoming embedded in social networks. Dan Schwebel describes how to integrate the use of Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, blogs, and other social media to create a complete image of an individual person. He also describes how to monitor and protect yourself while doing this.



Planning and long term goals are also integrated into his descriptions of social media tools. He even uses things like SWOT analysis (Strength, Weaknesses, opportunities, Threats), and checklists of goals to use when creating a personal brand.



There are many more advanced suggestions as well; creating a video resume, public relations and your image in social media, and entrepreneurial drive. This material is very corporate and entrepreneurial in nature. Donald Trump is mentioned briefly in the book which was kind of entertaining. It fits in very well with venture capital and the ideals of technology startups. Dan Schwebel says that Fast Company is his favorite magazine to read which is a favorite among young technology company workers.



I found the book to be useful. I even followed a few suggestions he made about Linked In. I found this book on http://www.mashable.com Mashable is a news site for social media.



3 comments:

Perseverance said...

Seems like an interesting read, I will see if I can find it locally. I think people also do not realise that what you put out there on the internet can influence your career. Thanks for this great blog I really enjoy it!

Book Calendar said...

I found my current job on the internet through the New York Times and my previous job through the internet as well. What you put online can affect your career tremendously. One of the reasons I got my previous job was because I had put some interesting material up on the web. I have a pretty good idea how job boards work.

However, job boards are listed jobs and usually not the best way to go. There is a tendency to not list the high demand jobs because people are always asking for them.

Adam Ehad said...

Hi, I've read Dan's stuff about Self-branding and have reservations about it. You can see an article about the problems with the concept over here: http://adamehad2.blogspot.com/2009/04/25page.html