The promised brand: How to get there

Prove your worth. In 2008, as director of communications at a community college, Sarah Evans met with her boss regularly to show what her online presence was yielding: postings that were reprinted, the number of student questions receiving prompt answers. "People were doubtful about getting into the social-media space, where they couldn't control the message," says Evans, who now runs Sevans Strategy, a Chicago new-media consulting firm.

Watch your language. Remember MORE

Case study No. 3: Branding, not bragging

Marvin Smith, talent sourcer, Microsoft

Marvin Smith, a talent sourcer in Microsoft's entertainment devices division, is an expert on incorporating Web 2.0 tech and social communities into the recruiting process. He's also a major voice at recruiting-industry conventions, in trade groups, and on blogs. Yet until recently Smith, 60, didn't have a personal brand portal—otherwise known as a blog. "I wasn't sure what voice I wanted to put forth," he says, MORE

Case study No. 2: The brand rehabber

Nick Goss, former corporate strategist, BMC Software

Nick Goss had an identity, all right, but it wasn't a positive one. "I was the annoying Englishman who says, 'This isn't going to work,' " he says. Goss, 50, started in 2003 as a corporate strategist in a division of BMC Software. At meetings he realized that his opinions were either ignored or greeted with skepticism; "The questioning got into incredible minutiae," MORE

Case study No. 5: Be sensitive to changing priorities

Mike Demler, former senior staff product manager, Synopsys

Three years ago Mike Demler was a senior staff product marketing manager at Synopsys, a $1.3 billion maker of tools used to produce integrated circuits. When the company asked if anyone wanted to blog, Demler enthusiastically volunteered. The now 55-year-old had earned his MBA a year earlier, and decided that for his career and the company's strategy "it was critical for me MORE

Case study No. 4: Edit thyself

Amy D., former interactive specialist, marketing firm

Ideally, employers should love it when workers hoist their own brand flags: It helps attract business. It's logical, after all, to expect that an employee with a passion for horses might help attract equestrians. Yet somehow, few remember that the same things that are inappropriate in the office are also verboten online. "People forget that they are always representing their companies," says Erwin. MORE

Case study No.1: Don't Be Overeager

Mark Pannell, former operations manager, Home Depot

Let's get this straight: Simply having a Twitter personality does not make you a good employee. As folks like Tila Tequila have demonstrated, just because you can use social-networking tools doesn't mean you should. It can be fatal. That's what Mark Pannell, 35, a veteran operations manager at a Home Depot store in Toledo, says happened in the summer of 2009. After a MORE

2011 Toyota Sienna SE: Brightening up the box

The much-maligned minivan is about to get an injection of adrenaline.

In the next six months, all three segment leaders -- Chrysler, Honda, and Toyota -- are due to launch new or extensively updated models.

Whether or not they are able to boost the image of this much-maligned vehicle remains to be seen.

Minivan sales have fallen sharply over the past decade as demographics, competition, and fashion have pulled customers elsewhere.

According to figures MORE

Aging gracefully: 2010 Range Rover

Range Rovers get reengineered about as often as Great Britain changes queens. Or as often as their parent, Land Rover, changes ownership.

The first Range Rover was introduced in 1970 and remained more or less unchanged for a quarter century.

The second generation arrived in 1995, a year after British Aerospace, which had brought the Rover Group in 1988, sold it to BMW.

The German company struggled with Rover for six years before MORE

Bella macchina: 2011 Maserati Gran Turismo Convertible

After 96 years of engineering and design triumph mixed with disappointment and a series of parent companies, Maserati prospers today. And it has a new convertible to show for it.

Few marques can equal the racing heritage and just plain longevity of Maserati.

If feeling like you are a part of that history appeals to you, then you will find that it adds to the excitement of driving the Gran Turismo Convertible.

The MORE

Small Biz Davids vs. Goliath

Can't compete with the big guys? Meet three small companies - a book publisher, a hotel chain, and a doughnut maker - that can.

By Jessica Shambora, reporter

The challenge: Will established authors embrace Blurb's online platform over traditional book publishers like Rodale?

What they did: David Kirsch was pretty happy with his publisher, Rodale, which released his two bestselling fitness books. But for his next book he hooked MORE