Amman Tech Tuesday (AmmanTT) is a non-profit organization that hosts a monthly event that brings tech industry experts, local technologists, engineers, entrepreneurs, idea-generators, and just about any enthusiast together in a casual setting to meet and learn from each other. AmmanTT’s platform allows people to share their experiences, projects, and ideas with the rest of the tech community.

Although I offer speaking at events as one of my services, supporting non-profit organizations and volunteering my expertise  to some educational institutes is one of my favorite interests.

Why did they choose me to speak?

It’s because of my online reputation, period. Today, you don’t need to pay $$$ to get more business or job deals. Social media is for everyone and it’s free. If you build your personal brand and work to maintain it, then someone will speak on your behalf. AmmanTT team chose the premier speakers in Jordan not only based on what they hear, but also what they see.

I selected Reputation 2.0: Manage Your Online Reputation as my topic for many reasons. Today, you have to manage your reputation before someone else does. The target wasn’t just GenY; GenX, baby boomers and even kids were part of my presentation.

Event Format:

The format was interesting.

1.      Eight speakers to discuss social media challenges (5 minutes each)  2.      Interaction with the audience for speakers (15 minutes)  3.      Networking break (20 minutes)  4.      Speakers will discuss conclusions (3 minutes each)  5.      Q&A panel (20 minutes)

My 1st Toastmasters speech: Who is Mohammed Al-Taee?

Toastmasters:

I joined Amman International Toastmasters Club, and a few weeks after I joined I was elected as the vice-president of public relations . I branded the club image on the web so I created Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and FriendFeed social accounts.

In my interview with Jörgen Sundberg, he advised job seekers to do public speaking whether at work or at the pub. I agree with Jörgen; Toastmasters helped improve my communication and leadership skills a lot.

In my first bi-monthly newsletter, I mentioned what Seth Godin said in his latest book, Linchpin: “Public speaking is one of the worst things the lizard brain can imagine.”

My response to that is this: We should work on mastering our lizard brains and give them no chance to control us out of fear. I’m not saying you don’t have be a little afraid of public speaking, but be more prepared and confident. Fear, or the lack of courage, is more responsible for failure in management, and in life, than any other factor. It is always fear that causes people to hold back, to sell themselves short, to settle for far less than they are capable of.

I firmly believe that you can do, you can have, and you can be far more than you now know if only you could eliminate the fear, doubts, and misgivings that consciously and unconsciously interfere with you realizing your full potential.

The event day:

The surprise for the event was the attendance of His Excellency, Jordan’s Prime Minister, Mr. Samir Al-Rifai who joined Twitter that very day and started interacting with Jordanian people.

Demonstrating how Twitter co-founder @ev was afraid of damaging his online reputation

Presentation:

I jumped directly into my topic and started my presentation with: “Do you know how many people get rejected from employment opportunities due to a bad online reputation?”

There was a silence… I proceeded to give few statistics before moving to my challenge for the audience.

I was reading It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be by Paul Arden at the time I was preparing for the event. Page 68 is entitled: “Don’t Give a Speech. Put ON a Show.”Arden said:

“When we attend a lecture, we generally go to see the speaker, not to hear what they have to say. We know what they have to say. That’s why we go to see them. How many speeches have you heard? How many of them can you remember?

“Words, words, words.

“Instead of giving people the benefit of your wisdom (words), try painting them a picture. The more strikingly visual your presentation is, the more people will remember it. And more importantly, they will remember you.”

So I thought: instead of creating a boring text presentation, why don’t I create visual slides that get people attention while they are listening to the stories behind that images? For anyone who is preparing for speaking events, it works

Open air discussion:

That session described my challenge and explained on a flip chart how to manage an online reputation. I got a lot of questions and many people took action after the event, like buying firstnamelastname.com, joining Linkedin, Twitter, etc. or even warning their friends or kids about the important of content sharing on the Internet.

Challenges:

Flexibility:  Each speaker got just five minutes to demonstrate his topic to the audience, I find it very difficult to give examples and explain the consequences just in five minutes, but AmmanTT team was not flexible with me in that issue! I don’t think things can move smoothly in the future if flexibility is not an option in the management process.

Other: It’s a $0 budget event, and they do a lot with the limited resources. I have to say “Bravo!” to everyone who made the event successful.

After event:

Speaking events are always a great opportunity for networking with different people.  I received invitations to speak at other events, I got business consulting offers, and one of the most important things I gained wass credibility.  Influence is power and when you have the power to be the leader in your niche, you get credibility. Credibility is a shortcut to branding yourself and differentiating your personal brand.

There is nothing to hide with my experience. I took a chance, prepared well, and did it. What about you? Do you have a successful speaking experience to share?

In Top 10 Quotes From Trust Agents, I explained my new way to review the books I read. I reviewed Career Distinction too.

Today I will review Linhcpin by Seth Godin. This is my 1st read for Seth. I feel shy for not reading at least 5 books for him. It’s an excellent book & must read for EVERYONE. This book inspired people around the world to meet and discuss the book. June 14, 2010, Linchpins in Jordan met & have very informative discussion. I’m not planning for explaining what is Linchpin as you can find on your favorite search engine.

I tweeted many quotes  during my reading and for those who miss them, here are my top 40 quotes from the book:

1 – This new dream isn’t about obedience. It’s about vision and engagement.

2 – Now, like or not, the world wants something different from you. We need to think hard about what reality looks like now.

3 – STOP asking what’s in it for you and start giving gifts that change people. Then, and only then, will you have achieved your potential.

4 - You have brilliance in you, your contribution is valuable, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do, and you must.

5 – Instead of focusing on complying with management as a long-term strategy for getting more stuff and being more secure, we have a chance to describe a powerful vision for our future and to actually make it happen.

6 – The indispensable employee brings humanity and connection and art to her organization. She is the key player, the one who’s difficult to live without, the person you can build something around. The indispensable employee-I call her/him a linchpin-is a person who’s worth finding and keeping.

7 – Being a tall helps you become a star in basketball, but how many of us have a shot at playing in the NBA? It’s not about what you’re born with; it’s about what you do.

8 – It’s easy to fool yourself into believing that genius works for them, but it won’t work for you.

9 – The linchpin feels the fear, acknowledges it, then proceeds.

10 – Organizations that can bring humanity to their interactions with other human beings will thrive.

11 – If the game is designed for you to lose, don’t play that game. Play different one.

12 – It doesn’t matter where you live on the long tail, as long as the tribes of people you connect with are eager to seek you out and help you succeed.

13 – If you are remarkable, amazing, or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn’t have a resume at all.

14 – Great jobs, world-class jobs, jobs people kill for–those jobs don’t get filled by people e-mailing in resumes.

15 – If your Google search isn’t what you want (need) it to be, then change it.

16 – The resistance is working overtime to be sure that you wont actually do anything remarkable. As a result, the list of excuses in reverse is longer that you might expect.

17 – The challenge is in being alert enough to write them down, to prioritize them, to build them, and to ship them out the door. It’s a habit, it’s easy to learn, and it’s frightening.

18 – By separating the hard work of preparation from the scary work of insight, you can build an environment in which you’re more likely to ship.

19 – I don’t want to be around people who are in frequent cycles of pain and fear.

20 – It’s impossible to be a linchpin if you agree to feed your anxiety.

21 - The goal is to quit the tasks you’re doing because you’re hiding on behalf of the lizard brain and to push through the very tasks the lizard fears.

22 – The resistance will help find the thing you most need to do because it is the thing the resistance most wants to stop.

23 – The art of challenging the resistance is doing something when you’re not certain it’s going to work.

24 – All the creativity books in the world aren’t going to help you if you’re unwilling to have lousy, lame, and even dangerously bad ideas.

25 – The lizard brain is the reason you’re afraid, the reason you don’t do all the art you can, the reason you don’t ship when you can. The lizard brain is the source of the resistance.

26 – The reason that art (writing, engaging, leading, all of it) is valuable is preciously why I can’t tell you how to do it. If there were a map, there’d be no art, because art is the act of navigating without a map.

27 – If you accept that human beings are difficult to change, and embrace (rather than curse) the uniqueness that everyone brings to the table, you’ll navigate the world with more bliss and effectiveness. And make better decisions, too.

28 - You can’t make a map unless you can see the world as it is. You have to know where you are and know where you’re going before you can figure out how to go about getting there.

29 – The most successful givers aren’t doing it because they’re being told to. They do it because doing it is fun. It gives them joy.

30 – Great bosses and world-class organizations hire motivated people, set high expectations, and give people room to become remarkable.

31 – Connections are valuable in and of themselves, because they lead to productivity, decreased communication costs, and yes, gifts.

32 – Giving a gift makes you indispensable. Inventing a gift, creating art-that is what the market seeks out, and the givers are the ones who earn our respect and attention.

33 - Don’t let your circumstances or habits rule your choices today. Become a master of yourself and use your will power to choose.

34 – You can either fit in or stand out. Not both.

35 – Either you are the drama of your everyday life or you are seeing the world as it is. These are all choices; you can’t have it both ways.

36 – To stand out, not to fit in. To make connections, not to be an invisible cog. To do otherwise is a loss.

37 – Every successful organization is built around people. Men and women who don’t merely shuffle money, but interest, give gifts, and connect.

38 – You have a genius inside of you, a daemon with something to share with the world. Everyone does. Are you going to continue hiding it, holding it back, and settling for less than you deserve just because your lizard brain is a afraid?

39 – Don’t ask your boss to run interference, cover for you, or take the blame. Instead, create moments where your boss can happily take credits. Once that cycle begins, you can be sure it will.

40 – If you want to be a linchpin, the power you bring to the table has to be very difficult to replace. Be bolder and think bigger. Nothing stopping you.

Share your review for the book or let me know your favorite part or advice in the comments box. Let’s have discussion.

There is no doubt that Facebook is the ruler of social media networks today. With 500,000,000+ active users, we are forced to use Facebook as a marketing tool for our personal or business’s brand. In order to distinguish your business on Facebook whether a page or a group, you need to brand your message.

Part of the services that I’m providing at BrandMyCareer is Masterpiece resume. I showed part of the ideas in 5 Innovative Ideas for Writing a Brand Resume. Today, I’m starting a new service which is called scrapbook resume (Personal) where I offer a visual resume that can be used as your Facebook profile picture, website/blog bio, additional career documents, etc. Scrapbook resume is a visual resume that shows a real picture of you as a storytelling of major achievements and key milestones in your life and career.

Also, I’m offering scrapbook resume (Business) for Facebook “Like” page where you can introduce yourself (or your business) in a very unique and interesting way, check BrandMyCareer for examples of this service.

You can win a scrapbook resume for FREE by commenting below (or Email me) with your needs. Why do you need this resume? Share your Facebook like page if possible. I will contact the winner on June 28, 2010

If you have a Facebook “Like” (formally fan) page then you are about to change your fans’ experience about your personal or business’ brand. Remember, this time it’s FREE

With the huge revolution of social media and technology tools today, I was thinking if there is really someone with a “social media expert” title?

Who is he? What he do? How can I find him? How can I recognize him? that’s curiosity leaded me to ask my favorite coach on Facebook Maria Elena Duron who was my guest on brand conversations series before few months.

I asked: Who is the Social Media (SM) expert? When do you call someone a SM expert or specialist?

Maria: I think you look at the reverb and interactions – numbers of followers or fans means nothing. All of it has to do with interaction. If they can interact with someone well, online, then they might be an expert at using that communication tool.

Mohammed: So you think engagement skill is what makes someone a SM expert?

Maria: Engagement skill is, yes. After all, what good are numbers is no one’s listening or communicating?  I ask for the tweetstats, FB interactives, do a page rank check, and checkout their LinkedIn answers, and their showing on board reader and twendz, and I check if their using YouTube – have a YouTube channel. If they don’t even have a channel, not someone that would be considered a well rounded SM to me. Will look at vimeo, vidller and Ustream too- but YouTube is the big dog so I would question why they didn’t have a presence there.

At the other side I tweeted Chris Brogan, the co-author of Trust Agents with Julien Smith and I asked him:

Mohammed: How do you know if you are talking to a real social media expert -not a fan-? and what do you focus on to measure his expertise?

Mohammed: So, a SM expert needs to have a real experience working on personal and corporate media projects. i.e. accounts, followers, etc. are nothing!

Maria answered: I would asking them about what kind of interactions they engage in. How would they engage peeps – getting quality connections is tough. I would much rather have 200 fans who all bought from me – then 10,000 silent followers. And, I would look at real recommendations, too. Not just the generic “she’s great” – real, good, hardy recommendations with the name and profile link of a real person.

So let’s summarize:

A “social media expert” is a title given to you, to be a real expert in your niche, you need to fulfill the above requirements, social media and technology are huge fields so being an expert is not easy recognition. If you want to hire me or do business with me, Chris or Maria then you should CIA us and not just look at our titles!

Although Chris is a social media expert but he dislikes that title, he prefer to be called a “Typist”. He’s truly confident about his expertise but he made his slogan “lead without a title” as Robin Sharma said:

Robin said: “We have now stepped into Leadership 2.0 and any business that is serious about winning in these turbulent times needs to get that. “The Leader Who Had No Title” distills what I’ve learned from working with the best organizations in the world into a formula any businessperson can use to seriously change the game. And it starts with understanding that leadership is no longer about the title on your business card. It’s about influence-and impact.”

People should maintain a level of modesty in their ability – no one has all the answers. If you are an expert then you don’t need to be a news station and tell everybody! We will find you and guess what? we will find you easier and faster than before 3 years.

I tweeted Tom Peters, who need not title to recognize him, I asked him:

Mohammed: When do you call someone an expert or guru in his/her niche? When did you fell that you are one?

What’s your definition of a social media expert? Do you agree with the above discussion? Do you believe there’s no such thing as a “social media expert.”? Share your opinion in the comments box below.

“The age of privacy is over.”

This is one of the latest Mark Zuckerberg quotes concerning Facebook’s policy. If a man who runs the biggest social network on the planet said that, then we have to stop and think about it 100+ times. It’s not necessary for you to be active on Facebook to think about it — we are living in an age that will not have space for something called privacy.

Today, people on the other half of the world can know instantly about my life activities such as playing football, having lunch with friends or giving a speech somewhere. We are forced to be transparent and authentic because it’s a new way of living; our online identity becomes our real identity.

Your personal brand is a reflection of your offline character and online identity, so merging your offline and online identities will be YOU. Yes, it’s you and should be you everywhere and on all social networks.  I will give few tips that can help you take action toward your personal brand to make sure that YOU are YOU wherever you are.

1 – Make sure your updates are aligned with your audience interests and not just broadcasting normal information. Don’t do stuff that can lose you connections… this is a guest post so continue reading at Melissa Cooley’s blog