Author: Erik Deckers

is the owner of Professional Blog Service, a newspaper humor columnist, and the co-author of Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself, No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing, and The Owned Media Doctrine.
Brand Yourself AsCareer DevelopmententrepreneurshipNetworkingPeoplePersonal BrandingPositioning

Pioneers Have Passion, Settlers Accept Stagnation

Do you have passion? Do you have something you love to do or want to achieve, and you are constantly working and thinking about how to get there? Or are you marching in place, content to be in motion without actually getting anywhere in life?

I’ve realized over the last few years how important passion …

Brand Yourself AsCareer DevelopmentNetworkingPersonal BrandingReputation ManagementSocial Media

Rebranding Yourself When Your Job or Life Changes

I’ve faced a couple of career changes in my years, after fully vesting myself in my previous job, company, and position. The changeover has been difficult at times, as I had gotten to know a lot of people in that previous industry, and set myself up as an authority on my particular company’s product or …

Brand Yourself AsCareer DevelopmentJob SearchPeoplePersonal BrandingPositioningReputation ManagementSEO

Share a Famous Name? How Do You Brand Yourself?

Vanessa Williams needs help with personal branding.

No, not that Vanessa Williams. She’s already famous.

Rather, Vanessa Williams (@prpeep), a PR professional in Pennsylvania. Last week, she tweeted Dan Schawbel and said, “Hey – would LOVE to see a post on personal branding for those of us who share a famous person’s name.” So, here …

Corporate BrandingEmployer BrandingMarketingPeoplePersonal BrandingReputation ManagementSocial Media

Avoid Using Your Employer’s Name in Your Twitter Account

Using your employer’s name in your Twitter account can be a little problematic for you for a number of different reasons. Unless you’re using an employee-specific account, you’re going to have problems if you use your employer’s name as part of your personal brand.

Let’s say you work for Lamplighters Lighting Solutions and you launch …

Career DevelopmentMarketingPersonal BrandingPositioningReputation Management

Writers Need to Promote Themselves, or Go Unread

Writers hate marketing. Or most of them do. They hate promoting themselves, talking about themselves, or drawing attention to themselves in any way, any time, ever.

Ev-ver.

Writers — for the most part — are humble, and don’t like to “brag” about themselves. Of course, they equate “bragging” with telling people they just published a …