What the heck is meatball sundae? As it sounds, it is a dish with balls of meat and whipped cream and a cherry on top. Not necessarily something you would want, would you? Replace the meatballs with ice cream and you have something you’d like – something that works well together and is a tasty treat.

This harmony, and the converse lack of harmony, is the crux of the book Meatball Sundae by marketing consultant and author Seth Godin. He uses this graphic example to state how you take your business products and services (the meatballs) and market it with today’s marketing tools, namely online (the whipped cream and cherry). Godin’s premise is you just can’t slap today’s progressive marketing techniques (blogs, viral videos) on staid products and services just as they are and how you have marketed them in the past, or New vs. Old Marketing as he refers to it. New Marketing is making a personal connection between the consumer and the emotion of the product or service, where Old Marketing is broadcasted, interruptive promotion as it has always been done in the past.

My greatest takeaway from this book is not necessarily a positive one – it is more unlikely to happen in an older organization than a newer one. In a newer company or firm, New Marketing is all they know, or could even have been the prevailing catalyst for the start of the business. Therefore, the firm is more in sync with what needs to be done to practice New Marketing.

In older companies, where marketing has happened “that way” for a long time and has worked, this understanding may not be in place, and unless it is guided throughout the organization, it will never happen. In most older, traditional companies, people are concerned more for their own jobs in a fluctuating economy than anything else, and are less likely to champion the cause of New Marketing. Despite this, many companies have taken a fresh look at what they do and sell and have made personal connections with their audience. It takes a different allocation of money and resources than before, but with such a perspective, they can see their results, measurable more than a billboard on a highway.

Meatball Sundae is a quick, lively read and full of many examples of companies and what they did well – and didn’t do well – in practicing New Marketing. I recommend it to newer or old companies, to help them in their thinking. Depending on the company, making such a leap may not be as wide as crossing an ocean.

When I read Meatball Sundae, it made me think of a book Godin wrote back in 2002, Purple Cow. I think I’ll re-read that one next.

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Business networking site LinkedIn has released a version of its service formatted for mobile devices. TechCrunch reported its release though there is no mention of it to be found on LinkedIn itself.

The mobile version is located at m.linkedin.com provides basic but stripped-down functionality of what you can do in a standard browser. Once you log in, you can see your own profile and contacts list. The Updates link appears to be similar to what is on the home page of LinkedIn, but unfortunately does not match the Web page. This is a feature I have identified as one of the key features of LinkedIn. Also, you can view your own Connections, but not your Connection’s Connections. Perhaps this is why there is a “beta” label at the top of the page.

You can of course view the mobile version in a standard browser. This will benefit LinkedIn members who are visually impaired and use a screen reader when surfing the Web. A while back when LinkedIn restructured the Connections list, it made it unreadable for those using screen readers. Using the mobile version will give those users back this vital feature of the service.

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“It’s 10 o’clock, do you know where your children are?” This was a brief TV spot I recall from childhood every evening just before 10 p.m. (of course my Mom didn’t have to worry about where I was because I was always at home, but I digress). I would like to take a spin on this phrase and apply it to something near and dear to me, domain names:

“It’s right now, do you know where your domain names are?”

In the last couple of weeks, I personally heard of 2 cases where owners of domain names realized they no longer had control of their domain names as they had expired and were in the hands of other entities. As a result, their Web sites and email accounts were disabled.

How do you avoid this? There are 2 ways to do so – take steps to properly manage your domain names yourself, or hire a professional to do so. As a full service Internet consultancy, this is a service I offer through Dunkirk Systems, LLC. However, if you have the time and interest to do so yourself, here are a few basic steps you can do yourself to manage your domains.

Know what you own

This may seem obvious, but it is vital not to overlook. As it is easy to acquire multiple domain names, it is just as easy to lose track of them. Maintain a list of the domain names, and add to it as you acquire others.

Know when they expire

Next to each domain name on your list, note their expiration date. I recommend to my clients to extend their registration to the maximum 10 years in advance, so you don’t have to worry about it every year. You can also put alerts in your calendar software to remind you to renew them, ideally well before they expire.

Know where they are registered

Ideally you should have all of your domain names together in 1 or maybe 2 registration accounts – it’s always good to have a backup account. Add the registrar’s name to your list, and store the login and passwords in a safe location.

Ensure contact information is accurate

Lookup your domain names in your registration account or with a 3rd party service like Domain Tools and see if your contact information is completely accurate. If not, update it. All of your information, especially your email address, should be correct, as to this email address you will receive renewal and other notices from your registrar.

These are basic and vital steps to managing an important asset to your business. Follow them, and then you can go back to worrying about your kids.

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What makes a great leader? The answer is surely not quick or short. Commonly it is discussed if someone is a born or made leader. But what if it is neither and you or someone discovers you are a leader, and what kind of leader are you? This is the premise of Your Inner CEO by Allan Cox.

Your Inner CEO takes the reader through this discovery – literally. Stories of Cox’s own personal experiences with leaders he has met, know and consulted to are married with exercises throughout the book that take you through this journey. They are broken into 9 steps, each one building on the previous to paint a picture of the kind of leader you could be, the kind others desire to be and be around.

My greatest takeaway from this book is leadership is not just about you. Where the model has been and continues to be where workers follow what the leaders does solely to make the leader succeed, in reality we all gain from all of us gaining. The leader brings out the best in all of the team so that all of the team, including the leader, succeed. If it fails, the team fails, learns from its experiences and moves on. This is something I have always followed myself – and anyone reading who has ever worked with me, feel free to comment on that statement! As a sole proprietor transitioning my business to a true company, I need to shed the role of control-freak entrepreneur and be a true leader and mentor.

Speaking of mentoring, another takeaway is mentorship is not dead. In a world where it seems being a contractor is the way to go and all we should hire, mentoring people pays for both the mentee and the mentor, and this book gives several examples of how to do it well. Many leaders and managers and people in general do not follow this - they hired a specific set of skills where the reality is they hired a person.

A final takeaway is leadership may be in all of us. We need to want to and try to seek it. As I have written before that entrepreneurship may be in us already the same goes for leadership.

I recommend Your Inner CEO to leaders, people who are about to be leaders as well as people who work on teams. Read the book through once then go back and complete the exercises, which is what I am doing now. There are accompanying online resources to it, including a Web site, wiki and Facebook group, the latter is how I connected with the author and learned of the book.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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The next likemind coffee will be next Friday, February 15 in dozens of cities around the world. In Chicago, it will be at Intelligentsia Coffee, 55 E. Randolph, at the corner of Wabash in the Loop.

I call likemind it a gathering of creative-minded people, from various disciplines including Internet, advertising, art, et. al. Coffee is gratis thanks to Anomaly.

This marks the return of likemind after several months, and now I am one of the coordinators. In addition to posts on The Hot Iron you are welcome to join the likemind Chicago Facebook group. Business • Technology • (7) Comments • Permalink