#StarWars and Its Digital Force

While it's true that "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" raked in the most money any movie ever has in one weekend, its digital force was equally as impressive.

Google searches for "Star Wars" of course peaked over the weekend (see image), but more noteworthy is those ticket purchasing and merchandise sites that were ready for the digital demand. 

Dynatrace reported Friday that Fandango.com (which last month received about 9 million visitors according to Compete.com data) reduced the content to their site by more than half in anticipation of an increase in weekend traffic. While it didn't see any improvement in performance, Dynatrace witnessed Fandango competitor Movietickets.com increase the content being delivered by over two times (on the Wednesday prior to Star Wars' release), resulting in increased response times (higher than Fandango).

As any Web professionals knows, consumers will not wait for a slow website and will turn to the site's competitor to accomplish their goals instead. In the case of an epic sales weekend, that could cost a digital outfit substantial revenue. 

Other digital takeaways from last weekend's Star Wars release came from social media where brands joined in the conversation. Website Magazine favorite @Charmin on Twitter tweeted the following (although including "#starwars" would have increased the Tweet's reach):

While brands should ensure what they post on social media is relevant to their offerings and audience, including some pop culture references and staying on trend is a social media best practice, as is, of course, reducing load times. Being a true digital force is thinking holistically about a brand's Web presence - from analytics and advertising to social media and search optimization - and everything between.