Hello
I'm Jake McKee
People call me The Community Guy
People call me The Community Guy
For anyone who has developed community programs as part of a medium to large corporation, there are two words that can send shivers down their spine: Legal Department. In today’s business culture, the internal legal department has taken on a powerful role, and many marketing and community building employees find themselves at odds with legal. [...]
In 2003, I was working on the community team at The LEGO Company, the maker of those fantastic and wonderfully ubiquitous plastic interlocking bricks. During this period I had a unique challenge of trying to convince my colleagues, smart folks who were solely focused on kid oriented programs and projects that there was value in [...]
Most of us know that in the typical online community, it’s not kosher to post blatant marketing materials. But when confronted by other more nuanced issues, such as how to introduce ourselves (or our company) to a community, or how to react to someone calling us names, things get a little murkier. This guide shares [...]
Let’s get this out of the way right up front: text-based communication is extremely difficult. In face-to-face communication, you have three forms of communication taking place at once: words (verbal), voice (vocal), and body (nonverbal). This provides an incredible level of nuance. The meaning of a conversation can change significantly with a fleeting eye roll [...]
(This is part of Ask the Community Guy, an ongoing series of questions posed by readers for Jake, the Community Guy) If you’re interested in more information about hiring or becoming a community manager, check out this collection of entries where I cover the topic in further detail. YS asks: What career progression is there [...]