Once they’ve scrolled down the page beyond that, you’ve got them. You can have a longer description, more images from the film, maybe even a few from behind the scenes to show your fun and creative cast and crew working oh so hard together on this labor of love. Then, you can have an embedded video of the trailer or teaser for your film on the main page of the film, along with the names of key cast and crew members, and even a link to a fuller list of the cast and crew (or the film’s IMDB page, if you’re so lucky to have gotten one).
Now, imagine, for example, that I'm your casual viewer. I’m scrolling through the page, I’ve watched the trailer, and gotten excited about the project, and now I want to see some images from the film and the shoots. Most social networking sites have a full photo album service integrated right into the main page of the site, so I see the link saying “Images” and I click on it. It takes me to a new page and I can browse through your well-organized albums according to “Film Screen Grabs,” “On-Set Shots,” even “Premiere Shots,” and “Cast & Crew Photos.” This type of simple but effective organization gives a very clean and professional feel to the site that makes me (the user) even more interested, based on my knowledge that this was a no-budget film. (Be as professional and organized as you can be with all your promotional efforts, and people will forget it’s done with no money – better yet, they’ll assume it was done with money). Now, say I want to find out if the film has its own website or blog. I back out of the photo album (or use the handy built-in link “Back to Profile”) and take a peek at your page again. Fortunately for me, you’ve made it obvious by some snazzy but simple design that you’ve got your film’s homepage right over here, at “this link below!” So I go ahead and click on that link, and it takes me right to your site that doesn’t take too long to load, since you thought ahead and didn’t include any tacky, huge images or complicated design elements that would increase load times and an average casual viewer’s annoyance at your site.
Now the second part of promoting your own work. It's shot, online, hosted; it’s got countless pages on social networking sites promoting the film, but you want one central place that you can update, instead of going to every single individual page and updating them all one by one. Well, that’s where to use a blog or a full website. Blogs are free, with simple domain names (however if you want a domain of your own – say www.AnimiVirtus.com – you’ll have to pay for it, though it’s probably only about twenty bucks and most of us aren’t that strapped for cash when we’re able to make films on our own time.) However, if you’d rather go the free route, you’ll just have to work a tiny bit harder in the promotion arena for your film. Websites can be free as well, but the same often goes for them – if you want your own custom domain name, you’ll have to pay for it – but there are free hosts with somewhat decent plans for free websites. What I’d really recommend is shelling out the $20 setup fee for a domain name (these usually need to be paid annually), along with the $5-$10 a month for a web hosting service from places like Hostrocket.com and others that give plenty of cheap and incredibly easy-to-use services like 24/7 technical service, libraries of built-in scripts (like blogs, forums, even e-Commerce solutions so customers can buy your film or related swag right off your site) that cost nothing to implement into your already paid-for site plan. That’s only about $140 for a whole year’s worth of quality service, the cost of which could easily be made back if you worked hard and were effective enough at promoting your film. The key is just not to let the efforts die out if they seem unsuccessful. Never give up on a passion.
One important fact that often gets overlooked is that different social networks have different user bases. Facebook and MySpace, for example, are most used in the US, whereas sites like Orkut and Viadeo are used mostly in places like India and Brazil or Europe, respectively. For example, Facebook is more a networking tool for college students and professionals, whereas MySpace is more for music, film and comedians. So think about who makes up the primary user base of each site, and that’ll keep you advertising your adult-humored sci-fi film in the right place. Not only will tapping into a social network you’re familiar with help you create an audience of people within your area, but tapping into other networking sites will tap into a whole other audience. You gain access to entire other countries and cultures and possible fan-bases with just a few clicks to register for one of the many free accounts at one of the many, many free social networking sites with user bases all around the world.
