Review: 'What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.'
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 7, 2014
Mark Cijo knows the territory he explores in this rather intensive but easily accessible book on finding those factors that can make each of us a `successful brand'. The concept is novel but then who better to address this filed of finding success in the Internet age than Mark Cijo. He has degrees in physics, computer science, and mathematics, is a co-founder of Brawnycode - a Digital Marketing Agency in India, and is currently a Digital Marketing Consultant, Mentor & Speaker based out of Dubai, UAE. He is a leading authority in digital inbound marketing and coaches clients in brand building from Dubai, Australia, India and the UK. And now we have him at our beck and call in this fine, very readable book.Making sense out the world of the internet as far as marketing ourselves is a conundrum for most: the intricacies and secrets of Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc are difficult enough to de-code for personal communication, but try to make sense of how these function in supporting your success in your work life is what Mark Cijo offers. After an introduction in which he instructs us to Google our name (and see the results - a keen lesson...!) he beings his book on how to develop our best brand so that we will be then most marketable. He addresses why personal branding is important to define our identity, the ten vital benefits branding offers (builds our credibility, creates opportunities, shows how we are unique and irresistible, etc), how to improve our personal brand by observing corporate brands - with some rather remarkable personal stories of success from the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, Lady Gaga et al), how to know the image we wish to project, how to find our target (customers, employers, clients - with a big emphasis on utilizing social media), know our specialty and own it, a fascinating `Branding Blueprint', create our `story', and online and offline tips and techniques for getting our new brand out in the world.After all of this information Mark Cijo presents some very solid and wise advice on how to avoid mistakes and errors in this branding process and encourages us to keep recreating or building our brand as the world changes. Solid information presented in a professional yet entertaining manner. Grady Harp, February 14