Midnight Oil Writing

As any fan of Discovery’s Deadliest Catch knows, the guys’ job is to go out, catch crab, and come back with everyone in one piece.  It’s a simple proposition.

But, as Captain Keith Colburn commented on a recent episode, “Catching crab is not an ‘option’.”

What he means is if they want to make money, they need to catch crab.  Regardless of weather, boat troubles, crew issues, or anything else.  They have no choice but to do the job.

How many businesses would transition from mediocre to successful if management viewed the task at hand — whether it is selling software, creating new product, acquiring new customers — as anything other than an ‘option’?

It’s sad to say, but many businesses are OK with excuses.  ”Sorry I didn’t make my numbers this quarter.”  ”No, I didn’t get to that.”  ”I was on vacation, so didn’t know about it.”

Common thinking may be that to be that focused, that driven, one needs to be difficult to work for.  Someone most people wouldn’t want to work for, or even with.

But if you look at the crews of the Deadliest Catch, most (most, not all), are OK working for someone they consider to be, well, a jerk.

Why?  Because they always come home with crab.

– Kelley

@kelleylynnk

OK, this past weekend I geeked out a bit on the Deadliest Catch Marathon in advance of this week’s debut of season 7.

During the “Deadliest Catch: Best of Season 6,” Captain Sig Hansen ended up “fishing with friends.”  And that presented a challenge to his end goal:  filling his tank with crab.

Avid fans of Deadliest Catch may know the details, but for those who don’t, here’s a quick overview.  Depending on the time of year and species of crab they are hunting, there are approximately 80 boats in the Bering Sea crab fleet.  The captains of those boats can choose where to fish; they do so based on current surveys from Alaska’s department of Fish & Game, previous experience and intuition.

It’s not easy to suss out where the crab is.

From the show it appears that Captain Sig likes to fish alone.  It makes sense: when you are the only boat fishing a particular spot, all the crab there are yours to catch.  When you’re fishing with friends, there are more boats and more pots going after the same amount of crab.

In this case, it meant fewer crabs in Sig’s pots.  Fewer crabs per pot equals more pots, more time and more effort to fill the tank, get to port and cash-in on the catch.

What does this mean for business strategy?  I think the Groupons of the world – all the daily deal startups and new entrants – have positioned themselves to be fishing with friends.  Sure, Groupon’s valuation is soaring.  They made, own and dominate that market.  Yet it seems every week we hear of new companies racing to be “the next Groupon.” The New York Times wrote an article on the “fleet of start-ups” chasing this market.

I think these Groupon clones should take a lesson from Captain Sig: it’s better to fish alone than to fish with friends.

– Kelley
@kelleylynnk

Marketing automation is a large and growing market.  Marketing automation software offers many benefits to its users — it offers processes for closed loop marketing, nurturing sales and more.  Generally, companies purchase marketing automation software to help maximize marketing dollars, understand marketing ROI and ultimately, increase sales conversions.

Recently I’ve worked with a few startups who’ve purchased and used marketing automation software.  While I’m not sure I would spend precious startup money on marketing automation, I understand the need for accelerating sales.   (more…)

The ROI of social media is a hot topic.  How do you measure – and therefore – assess the value of social media?  If you are like me, I’m sure you’ve heard many approaches to measuring social media.  Some people think it’s akin to measuring the value of talking; some think (like a CFO, not a CMO) it needs to be measured quantitatively.

I suspect the answer is unique to each organize, the value of and role of communications.

But I do know there is a return on investment in social media.  As an example, let’s take a look at my day on Saturday. (more…)

My last blog post (we won’t point out how long ago that was!) talked about how hosting a webinar is like crab fishing.  The gist was: enough bait (marketing) and soak (lead time) and you’ll have enough crab (attendees).

But there’s one more aspect: what kind of crab is in your pot?   (more…)

Viewers of the Deadliest Catch might think crab fishing is all about treacherous waves, drama on the deck, and dealing with Captain Bligh in the wheelhouse.  That definitely makes good TV.

But from the crabbers’ perspectives, it is all about catching crab.  And there are a few similarities between catching crab and hosting a webinar.   (more…)

Getting customer references is sometimes the biggest challenge faced by B2B marketers.  It can be tedious and labor-intensive, but it is also strategic and often of vital importance.

Over the course of nearly 20 years I’ve worked with a wide range of companies to develop customer references.  From start-ups to blue chip firms, all B2B companies struggle with having enough of the right customer references.

I recently shared some of my thoughts about working with the sales force on customer references as a guest blogger on Pixability’s blog.  Pixability is a really cool, local start-up focused on helping organizations tell their stories using video.

I’d love to hear how you work with your sales team to cultivate customer references.

- Kelley

@kelleylynnk

Scheduling posts is tempting.  You can write a month’s worth of blog posts and just queue them up and forget about it.  Oh, so tempting.

But what if something happens between the scheduling and going live.  Say, for example, in early January 2009, you wrote a piece about the improbability of birds getting sucked in to both the engines of a plane.  Then comes the Miracle on the Hudson, and you have egg on your face.

Or maybe you had a nice, post-Thanksgiving blog on the greatness of Tiger Woods.  Hanging out in your turkey coma, you think…. now when is that post supposed to run?  Did it go live yesterday?

Recently, I had a night of fitful sleep.  Strange dreams.  Not very restful.  I was awake — trying to get back to sleep — at 5am.  OMG!  I realized I had a post scheduled for sometime that day.  And, due to some external events having nothing to do with me, but related to my content, the timing of that post could napalm some business relationships I’d been building.

I doubt I’ve ever bolted out of bed so fast.  Yup, the post was scheduled to go live at 11am that morning.

Don’t have a 5am panic attack.  Don’t schedule your posts.  Draft and save, but don’t schedule.  You’ll enjoy a solid night’s sleep.

I’d heard consumer PR is different from B2B PR.  Now I know “Hollywood” PR is very different from technology PR. 

Through a perfect storm (sorry, had to) of coincidences and personal contacts, a friend, Jamie Marshall of Gloucester, asked me to donate some PR services to a fundraiser in Gloucester.  Jamie and the apparently indefatigable Kristin Michel pulled together a sell-out fundraiser for the Gloucester Little League.  Community fundraisers aren’t always a sell-out, but they are when you get guest stars from Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch! (more…)

Last week we wrote about public relations transitioning into storytelling.   Storytelling as a career/industry is on the rise, but is the art of storytelling coming through, or getting lost.  (more…)