Before the introduction of Facebook pages, one of the best ways to promote your film<\/strong> and create a following was through a website. At networking events, festivals, online, or wherever, you could quickly direct someone to your film’s URL, where they could see behind-the-scenes photographs, credentials, contact information, and so on<\/strong>. The more professional the site, the more professional you and your project looked. In today’s digital age, however, you can do all that and more on Facebook \u2014 for free.<\/p>\n Creating a website is neither cheap nor easy. So let’s\u00a0weigh the pros and cons<\/strong> between a Facebook page and a dedicated\u00a0website.<\/p>\n If you’ve never created a website before, let’s break down the very basics of the cost. We’re going to assume you’re using something like a\u00a0wordpress.org hosting platform. (Learn the difference between .org and .com here<\/a>). Using WordPress, you can find a ton of great short film or creative-oriented themes<\/strong> that you can build upon to create a unique website. While\u00a0there is definitely a learning curve, you can pick up what you need to know\u00a0relatively quickly. For your first purchase, you can also get the essentials at a discounted cost<\/strong>:<\/p>\n So for the basics, you’re looking at at least $150 for the initial year. If you’re working on a low-budget or no-budget film<\/strong>, that’s a substantial amount. This isn’t even taking into consideration the hours you have put in to get\u00a0the site operational. Conversely, a Facebook page is free, and you can get one up and running in just ten minutes. There is no learning curve, there are no plug-ins to install, and there is no\u00a0code to understand<\/strong>. (Although, you don’t own this page outright like you do a website.)<\/p>\n If you want a completely new and unique website<\/strong>, you would have to hire a web designer, and this would very quickly enter into the thousands-of-dollars price range. Therefore, it’s usually wisest\u00a0to stick with a theme and customize it to the point that\u00a0it’s indistinguishable<\/strong> from the original \u2014 or at least hire a WordPress\u00a0theme designer, which would be somewhat cheaper than building\u00a0an entire website from the ground up.<\/p>\n If you decide to host the film or web-series on your own website rather than through YouTube, you have to consider\u00a0the discoverability of your website<\/strong> as opposed to YouTube or even Facebook’s (not-so-good) video player. Webmasters spend months, even years, working on creating SEO-friendly pages and content<\/strong> to increase the page rankings of their website. If your site is solely going consist of a short film with no additional content, traffic will stop, and the site will ultimately fall in the search rankings.<\/p>\n In the age of social media, we have to talk about the benefits of hosting your short film on Facebook rather than a website. Whether you build a website, create a Facebook page, or host the short film solely on Vimeo, at some point, the film will begin circulating on Facebook. However, the audience reach of people sharing your film’s Facebook page<\/strong> in comparison to your film’s website will be far greater. Facebook’s sharing algorithm\u00a0strongly prefers content that keeps users on the site<\/strong> (more ad impressions = more revenue for Facebook). Therefore, if several audience members share your short film, then a lot more people will view the Facebook page than if the same group was sharing the link to your website<\/strong>.<\/p>\n At this point, opting for a Facebook page should seem like the obvious choice. The nail in the coffin, however, is communicating with your audience at a moment’s notice<\/strong>.<\/p>\n While you can configure WordPress on your phone, there’s nothing as easy as using the Facebook Pages app on a smartphone or tablet. You can essentially build a community around your film or web series<\/strong> on Facebook, and as communities tend to grow, so will your\u00a0viewership. Unless you install forums on your website, which is tedious, this just wouldn’t be possible for your film’s web page.<\/p>\n Ultimately, if you’re creating a low-budget short<\/strong>, setting up a website for promotional purposes isn’t feasible. It’s just going to be money that you’ll never get back. However, there is one situation\u00a0wherein a\u00a0website would reign supreme, and that’s if you’re selling merchandise. Currently, the Facebook merchandise feature is very fickle, although they are looking into making advancements. Therefore, if you think there is a market for merchandise and Blu-Rays<\/strong>, like RocketJump’s “Videogame Highschool,”<\/a>\u00a0it would likely be best to have a website for e-commerce.<\/p>\n Conversely to everything discussed above, when you have a body<\/em> of work to showcase<\/strong>, it would then<\/em> be in your interest to create a website. Followers and interested viewers can easily browse all your work on a single page<\/strong> \u2014 which is not possible on a Facebook page because\u00a0you have to scroll through an endless sea of status updates.<\/p>\n The verdict?<\/p>\n Individual exhibition<\/strong>: Create a website<\/p>\n Short film<\/strong>: Take advantage of Facebook’s fantastic page feature.<\/p>\n If you’ve already browsed your Facebook feed today, I’m sure you have already come across a sponsored post.<\/em>\u00a0These are paid promotions for posts from Facebook Pages<\/strong> that appear in the timeline of someone who has a similar interest. If you were to follow various Facebook Pages about the horror genre, vampires, and Dracula, and I promoted a post for my short film about Dracula’s Son and targeted those keywords, you would more than likely see the film appear in your timeline<\/strong>. While you can do almost the same thing with a website, the process is inherently a lot harder and requires the use of a third-party ad manager.<\/p>\n Whether you love or loathe Facebook, it’s become an invaluable tool for filmmakers and creative types<\/strong> to promote their work, and I recommend\u00a0you take advantage of it for your creative venture.<\/p>\n Looking for more articles on using Facebook for promotion? Check out these:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At one time, every project needed a promotional website, but in the age of Facebook pages, is this still true? Let’s find out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":94815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[583],"tags":[5659,1299,625],"class_list":["post-class-post-94641","post-class-post","post-class-type-post","post-class-status-publish","post-class-format-standard","post-class-has-post-thumbnail","post-class-hentry","post-class-category-video-production-2","post-class-tag-facebook-page","post-class-tag-short-film","post-class-tag-website"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Should](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/facebook.jpg\" "\\"Should")
\n<\/a>Image via Shutterstock<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nThe Cost<\/h3>\n
\n
![\"Should](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/website.jpg\" "\\"Should")
\n<\/a>Image via Shutterstock<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nSocial Engagement<\/h3>\n
![\"Should](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/traffic.jpg\" "\\"Should")
\n<\/a>Image via Shutterstock<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Should](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/dior.jpg\" "\\"Should")
\n<\/a>Image via Shutterstock<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nWhen to Build a Website<\/h3>\n
\nAdvertising<\/h3>\n
\n\n