A long time ago in a galaxy far far away Star Wars took social media by storm. The much anticipated film "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" hit theaters on December 18, 2015. The film that broke box office records recording a whopping 2 billion worldwide. However the Walt Disney Company can thank social medias help for this great achievement. Over the course of months and still going on there wasn't a time or place where you would encounter Star Wars merchandise or signs, or even retweets or shares on Facebook and Twitter.
The social media outbreak for Star Wars was aided by the help of google. Google released a commercial showing that fans can go on google apps and use the codes "dark side" or "light side" in googles "choose your side" campaign. This gave fans access to games and themes and helped Star Wars marketing campaign to interact with fans.
According to CNBC's Althea Chang "On Twitter alone, there were 2.8 million tweets using the #StarWars hashtag in the last 30 days, according to Ted Murphy, CEO of online marketing firm Izea."
Social media played a huge role during the time when the movie first hit theaters with many people commenting or tweeting on major statuses or tweets spoiling the movie for many people. This had been going on for several weeks and it had gotten out of control.
Twitter also played a huge role in the social media outbreak that Star Wars had. Star Wars had launched several different hashtags prior to the release of the film. With hashtags such as "#StarWarsDay, #MayThe4BeWithYou, #ForceFriday, #ShareTheForce, and #TheForceAwakens".
Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer broke movie theatre sites nationwide when it premiered and had a total of 88 million views within the first hour of releasing.
Twitter also gave users a chance to use Star Wars themed emojis to go with characters from the new film. This gave fans a little personal touch to their fandoms. It has been truly inspiring what Star Wars has done in social media prior to the release of this huge blockbuster.