Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself

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

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