A couple months ago, Dan Schawbel did a short Q&A with me over at his Personal Branding blog (illustrated, curiously enough, with a photo of the “Cubes” — dolls in a lifelike corporate setting — which was honestly one of my favorite items I wrote about for Reader’s Digest’s Only in America section back in the day. But I digress). Dan now has a book out called Me 2.0, subtitled “Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success.” Back in 1997, Tom Peters postulated that we would all have to become “Brand You” if we wanted to stand out in the new labor market. Schawbel’s book, aimed at younger readers, shows these career builders how to make a name for themselves.

The premise of the book is undeniably true. While some companies do still load up their trucks with new hires at college career fairs, landing any sort of entry-level job is becoming harder and harder. Whether you’ll  stay there long term is an even dicier proposition. As I pointed out in Grindhopping, it’s just as easy to start something on your own, a fact the lousy economy is driving home. As I pointed out in USA Today 2 weeks ago, at least one survey found that a full quarter of the labor force is now in “free agency” mode.

So how do you make yourself stand out as a free agent, or as someone looking for the next opportunity, or even as someone who wants to get ahead in your profession? You brand yourself of course, and then market your brand just like a corporation would. Me 2.0 talks about how to do that.

Going into book review mode here, I’ll raise a few quibbles with the book. The first is in style. Me 2.0 is standard self-help — long on describing what Twitter is, very light on stories. Personally, I like to see a lot of meaty reporting — tales of people who’ve used the suggestions offered. As it is, Schawbel winds up using himself as the primary example. I know he is quite accomplished, but still. Second, the idea of personal branding has definitely spread over the past five years or so, to the point where as a reporter, I’m seeing endless streams of folks who have branded themselves as The (Something) Mom, or The (Something) Pro, etc. When everyone’s a brand, it seems a lot less clever.

That said, there are some interesting tips. For starters, if you’re not going to be The (Something) Pro, you live or die by your name and its Google results.  So I am quite fortunate that there are no other Laura Vanderkams out there. I’m keeping that in mind for naming future children since my husband’s last name is relatively common (though this is a double-edged sword. If I’m ever accused of something hideous, you will definitely know it’s me!). Second, Schawbel suggests an “endorsement mindset” — collecting good quotes about yourself from people you’ve worked with. I’ve never done this, but should.

Of course, technically, I’m not even sure I could articulate what my personal brand is. I’ve stubbornly resisted specializing in my writing, even with the obstacles this creates to building a platform, because I like to write about most things. So broadly, I would say my brand is quality writing — translating complex material into compelling prose and telling stories in ways that make people say “I haven’t thought of it that way before.” Alas, though, I think that’s too many characters for Twitter, and probably doesn’t make a good sound bite either.