People call me The Community Guy
25 Things that make me happy, despite TIME’s disdain…
by Jake McKee on 17 Feb, 2009 - 6 comments
TIME Magazine published an idiotic article that is yet another in an ongoing, ever present trend that drives me nuts. I call it Get Off My Lawn Syndrome. Facebook’s “25 Things About Me” meme seems harmless enough; people write 25 facts about themselves and post them on their Facebook pages, just as they do with […]
Reason #23,4593 people don’t trust companies
by Jake McKee on 04 Feb, 2009 - 3 comments
Most people don’t trust most companies. Let’s be honest about that. We’ve been trained for decades to distrust companies because they fail to act like groups of humans rather than lawsuit fearing entities. Case in point: Ty, the toy company responsible for the popular Beanie Babies dolls, is now marketing “Sweet Sasha” and “Marvelous Malia” […]
Please stop calling it “Recession Marketing”
by Jake McKee on 26 Jan, 2009 - 5 comments
I’ve been reading and hearing a lot of discussion about how this social stuff (social media, community building, customer collaboration) is a magic bullet for these troubling economic times. The term “Recession Marketing” is being thrown pretty willy nilly. (Did I just use the term “willy nilly”?? Oh my.) These times aren’t about simply changing […]
Extortion: American Airlines’ new business model.
by Jake McKee on 05 Nov, 2008 - 3 comments
Extortion: To obtain property or money by the use of threats or intimidation. Try as I might to quit flying American Airlines, living in Dallas makes that fairly difficult. I’ve already started flying Southwest more than I have in the past, as well as a number of other airlines. The more time I spend dealing […]
Do you know who your real brand manager is?
by Jake McKee on 17 Sep, 2008 - 9 comments
At iMedia Brand Summit yesterday, I was floored by a comment from Jerry Courtney, Group Manager at Target. He said that they don’t think of retail employees at the stores as “clerks”, but as “brand managers”. After all, his point was, the frontline employees have vastly more control over the actual brand perceptions than anyone […]
Jake’s 9/11 Story
by Jake McKee on 11 Sep, 2008 - 0 comments
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’re probably growing tired of this post once a year. But you may also remember that I’ve promised myself to read this story every year for at least 10 years after 9/11. http://communityguy.wpengine.com/911story/ This story was written on the first anniversary of 9/11, and as you […]
Focusing on the wrong things.
by Jake McKee on 11 Sep, 2008 - 3 comments
Seriously? It never ceases to amaze me how much time is wasted on pointless, silly issues in offices. Imagine if the same time used to develop this sign was put into figuring out how to increase profits enough to allow for additional creamer purchases. Along these lines, Citigroup is cutting color copies and Blackberries. I […]
Community Organizing is Social Media
by Jake McKee on 04 Sep, 2008 - 12 comments
(I’ll warn you in advance, this is a politics-influenced rant, but it does relate to community issues!) During last night’s keynote speech by Rudy Giuliani at the Republican National Convention, Giuliani poked at Barack Obama’s former work as a community organizer with a smirk. Giuliani was clearly implying that community organizing was a joke, an […]
Pandora is at serious risk of shutting down
by Jake McKee on 19 Aug, 2008 - 2 comments
Just when you think that the music industry can’t sink any lower… Founder Tim Westergren has stated that the service is approaching a “pull-the-plug kind of decision” for the service. Why is this happening? Last year, web radio giants were hit with outrageously ridiculous fees by a federal panel for every song that would be […]
I think I hate George Lucas
by Jake McKee on 18 Aug, 2008 - 2 comments
George Lucas is a genius. Let’s get that out of the way right up front. But his genius isn’t about movie making, it’s one of Empire Building. He has created, or at least been a crucial player in, several multi-billion dollar industries that have continued to grow and change the way we think not just […]