Book Review of “Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success”

I got to know Dan Schawbel, a personal branding expert, back in 2007 when I was starting  to work out on my blog here.  I felt really privileged to be able to write articles for his personal branding magazine quite some time ago.

I wish to inform all of you that in just two days’ time, he is going to launch his first book called “Me 2.0″.  I have the chance to read the book in advance, and to write a review of it.

Me 2.0 book

This book is suitable for people who are starting their careers, especially for college students.   It shows you why you should build a brand of yourself, and how you can do it.

Especially in today’s readily available internet tools such as Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and others, all of us can build a brand of ourselves.  And nobody except for yourself will be able to sell your own brand.

It is suitable for both job-takers and entrepreneurs, who are looking forward into building a personal brand of themselves.

Start building credibility of yourself from where you are

A lot of people tend to stop what they are good at after they have quitted from a job.  It is such a waste because you have already spent years working on it, and you have to stop what you have learnt, and start learning something new on another job.

Personal branding allows you to continue to add your credits continuously.

This Me 2.0 book is exactly the one which teaches you how you can build your credibility.  With the advancement of technology, you can leverage on the power of the technology to build a brand of YOU.

Dan’s enthusiasm and passion can be felt in the book

Although I have access to him online, I have not talked to him personally.  It’s until I read his book that I start to learn about how he got into his dream college and then into his dream jobs.  It’s all through his own brand that he is selling to the college and employers.

He wanted to get into that dream college so much, but was rejected eventually.  After given that one-chance interview, he put his very best to sell himself as the most ideal student that the college should not reject.  And yes, he got it in!

What will you benefit from this book?

You will learn how to discover your own branding, and then create this branding of you, communicate it out to the world, and to maintain it.   In other words, you will learn how to use personal branding as a corporate strategy!

With the accessibility of the Internet, you will also learn how to leverage  on the social media and search engines to your  advantage when building your personal brand online.  You will also think which position you should take when building your online presence, such as programming your own website or to outsource.  And when you are building your contents on the web, this book will prompt you to consider the different items such as Bio, photographs, blogs, etc.

What do Charles think about this?

I think that this book is crucial to a person who is starting their career working for someone else or even for themselves.  In other words, this book is able to help you in your career advancement.  Your knowledge and experience which you have gained along the years will be accumulated to make you an expert in your industry.  It will not be wasted when you are moving on  to another job because the employers are employing you because of the brand called YOU.

Start building your personal branding and see your favorite companies hunting you!

Tagged as: dan schawbel, me 2.0, personal branding