We are a year old!
December 2018
Dave Clark
Wow. That has flown.
A bit of history
Just over twelve months ago Alex and I decided to set up a Star Wars fan website, twitter account and podcast.
We debated the name and our theme. We are both from a marketing and business development background, so had some idea of what we would need to set up to do something like this.
We settled on 'The Jedi Council' and had a look at available web domains and twitter accounts. Luck was with us (or maybe it was the Force) and we managed to get what we wanted.
If anything, our concern was that there was just the two of us, would we have the time – could we make the time to fit this into our ‘normal’ life? We chatted with other mates, and Andy also shared our interest in trying something like this so joined our little band – the three amigos!
We sent out a few tweets to test the waters, and see if our fellow fans would respond. We had favourable feedback from guys such as Jake (@IronWolf714), Mara (@MaraRanger), Tulay (@Tulay_81) and Sean (@SmMarwood). Positive and encouraging.
We settled on the 14th December 2017 as our official launch date. The same day as The Last Jedi was released in the UK. Ahead of the launch we set up the website and put a few articles up that we had written so that there was something to see. We had had a think about the types of things to write about, what we would want to read, what we had some knowledge of. We even managed to prepare a podcast ahead of the launch for people to listen to.
In December Alex was approached by Ali who asked if he could write a piece for the website. Ali knew Alex and was intrigued by what we had set up and wanted to contribute. We were excited by this... perhaps our little plan could work!
On the back of this I asked Tulay (who had provided some great feedback to our tweets and website) if she would be willing to tell us a bit about what it’s like to be a member of the Dutch 501st. She agreed. Excellent!
In January 2018 Ali wrote another piece for the website and by March had joined us as a permanent member of the Council. Ali is much more focussed on marketing in his normal life and has brought his knowledge of social media to the group. To be honest our growth in followers on Twitter has been down to Ali’s hard work – thanks Ali.
In April 2018 Mara provided some great feedback to our podcasts and expressed (semi seriously I think) that she would, just perhaps, like to have a go. So in April we had a guest presenter on our podcast. This was to be repeated a few more times over the next month or two and we decided to ask Mara to become the ‘First Lady’ of the Council. And we have been very fortunate that she said yes. The team was now five!
12 months later
We have managed 23 podcasts this year, and another two involving my eldest son – the Padawan Podcasts!
Not bad given that real life keeps trying to get in the way. That’s more than two a month as an average. And they are usually at least an hour and a half long – so that’s over 30 hours of recordings! More than I thought we would manage!
We have discussed a wide range of Star Wars content. Yes, we have perhaps debated the merits (or rather lack of) of The Last Jedi in some depth, but we have also covered Solo, Rebels, Resistance, rumours from the Mandalorian, and Episode IX of the Saga. We have also discussed collectables, past movies and animations. We have even tried to explain what Star Wars means to us.
We also have a fair amount of written content on the site, and its growing.
Today we have over 2,100 followers. I am truly amazed by this. Does this mean that people like what we do? Are our tweets and podcasts that engaging?
We have even managed a few Instagram posts and set up a Facebook page – it’s sparse at the moment but little acorns and all that!
What next?
I honestly don’t know.
We are all still enjoying it. We are still thinking of things to discuss. If anything we don’t seem to run out of topics! Our follower base remains engaged (I think) and we want to grow the twitter following more, as the Star Wars fans on twitter are just awesome.
We are doing this purely out of fun, and are making some great friends. If it wasn’t for The Jedi Council I would never have met Ali, and I would never have spoken to Mara (I will one day meet you!).
For me, The Jedi Council gives me somewhere to geek out with my very best friends – old and new.
I wish I could dedicate more time to the group, but a wife and 2 young(ish) children as well as a full time job (required for the mortgage) means I can never dedicate as much time as I want. Perhaps one day – maybe when I retire (20 years away yet – but I hope we are still doing this!).
I feel I am letting the team down sometimes, I enjoy writing but I don’t write enough for the website. Maybe I can do better in 2019. Perhaps I should make a commitment. 2 articles as a minimum a month??? That shouldn’t be impossible…
Above all I want to thank everyone. Alex for being such a great friend, Andy for joining in even though he professes to not be as much of a fan, Ali for providing a bit more consistency to what we do and Mara for being my big sister.
I also want to thank everyone who listens to our podcasts, who reads our articles and who responds to us on Twitter. You are all great. You are all friends of The Jedi Council – I have always disliked the term ‘follower’ – you are friends and I look forward to sharing more Star Wars thoughts and memories for the foreseeable future.
May the Force be with you all... always
Dave Clark
Wow. That has flown.
A bit of history
Just over twelve months ago Alex and I decided to set up a Star Wars fan website, twitter account and podcast.
We debated the name and our theme. We are both from a marketing and business development background, so had some idea of what we would need to set up to do something like this.
We settled on 'The Jedi Council' and had a look at available web domains and twitter accounts. Luck was with us (or maybe it was the Force) and we managed to get what we wanted.
If anything, our concern was that there was just the two of us, would we have the time – could we make the time to fit this into our ‘normal’ life? We chatted with other mates, and Andy also shared our interest in trying something like this so joined our little band – the three amigos!
We sent out a few tweets to test the waters, and see if our fellow fans would respond. We had favourable feedback from guys such as Jake (@IronWolf714), Mara (@MaraRanger), Tulay (@Tulay_81) and Sean (@SmMarwood). Positive and encouraging.
We settled on the 14th December 2017 as our official launch date. The same day as The Last Jedi was released in the UK. Ahead of the launch we set up the website and put a few articles up that we had written so that there was something to see. We had had a think about the types of things to write about, what we would want to read, what we had some knowledge of. We even managed to prepare a podcast ahead of the launch for people to listen to.
In December Alex was approached by Ali who asked if he could write a piece for the website. Ali knew Alex and was intrigued by what we had set up and wanted to contribute. We were excited by this... perhaps our little plan could work!
On the back of this I asked Tulay (who had provided some great feedback to our tweets and website) if she would be willing to tell us a bit about what it’s like to be a member of the Dutch 501st. She agreed. Excellent!
In January 2018 Ali wrote another piece for the website and by March had joined us as a permanent member of the Council. Ali is much more focussed on marketing in his normal life and has brought his knowledge of social media to the group. To be honest our growth in followers on Twitter has been down to Ali’s hard work – thanks Ali.
In April 2018 Mara provided some great feedback to our podcasts and expressed (semi seriously I think) that she would, just perhaps, like to have a go. So in April we had a guest presenter on our podcast. This was to be repeated a few more times over the next month or two and we decided to ask Mara to become the ‘First Lady’ of the Council. And we have been very fortunate that she said yes. The team was now five!
12 months later
We have managed 23 podcasts this year, and another two involving my eldest son – the Padawan Podcasts!
Not bad given that real life keeps trying to get in the way. That’s more than two a month as an average. And they are usually at least an hour and a half long – so that’s over 30 hours of recordings! More than I thought we would manage!
We have discussed a wide range of Star Wars content. Yes, we have perhaps debated the merits (or rather lack of) of The Last Jedi in some depth, but we have also covered Solo, Rebels, Resistance, rumours from the Mandalorian, and Episode IX of the Saga. We have also discussed collectables, past movies and animations. We have even tried to explain what Star Wars means to us.
We also have a fair amount of written content on the site, and its growing.
Today we have over 2,100 followers. I am truly amazed by this. Does this mean that people like what we do? Are our tweets and podcasts that engaging?
We have even managed a few Instagram posts and set up a Facebook page – it’s sparse at the moment but little acorns and all that!
What next?
I honestly don’t know.
We are all still enjoying it. We are still thinking of things to discuss. If anything we don’t seem to run out of topics! Our follower base remains engaged (I think) and we want to grow the twitter following more, as the Star Wars fans on twitter are just awesome.
We are doing this purely out of fun, and are making some great friends. If it wasn’t for The Jedi Council I would never have met Ali, and I would never have spoken to Mara (I will one day meet you!).
For me, The Jedi Council gives me somewhere to geek out with my very best friends – old and new.
I wish I could dedicate more time to the group, but a wife and 2 young(ish) children as well as a full time job (required for the mortgage) means I can never dedicate as much time as I want. Perhaps one day – maybe when I retire (20 years away yet – but I hope we are still doing this!).
I feel I am letting the team down sometimes, I enjoy writing but I don’t write enough for the website. Maybe I can do better in 2019. Perhaps I should make a commitment. 2 articles as a minimum a month??? That shouldn’t be impossible…
Above all I want to thank everyone. Alex for being such a great friend, Andy for joining in even though he professes to not be as much of a fan, Ali for providing a bit more consistency to what we do and Mara for being my big sister.
I also want to thank everyone who listens to our podcasts, who reads our articles and who responds to us on Twitter. You are all great. You are all friends of The Jedi Council – I have always disliked the term ‘follower’ – you are friends and I look forward to sharing more Star Wars thoughts and memories for the foreseeable future.
May the Force be with you all... always