This is part one of a series of articles on web tools that media- and film-makers can use Web tools for promotion.

There's no doubt that if you build a base of supporters for your film, project, or organization, it's likelihood of success will be that much greater. What if you couldbuild the equivalent of a MySpace focused on your project? In other words, a place where others could feel a connection with your film or project, discuss it among themselves, offer ideas, send their friends to check it out, and so on. This effectively leads to more people finding out about your work, and if you do it well, a buzz that has people looking forward to experiencing more of it. You can send announcements, share videos/photos, and all the niceties we've come to associate with social networking sites.

Here we'll cover three web platforms that will allow you to create your own social network - with all the features that the big players have (such Myspace, Facebook, Bebo, LinkedIn) - and more, and do so for free. Using these sites, you can build a site for your whole army of film fans, and build that buzz for whichever purposes you'd like. You can brand them with your own images, logos, and that color theme that fits just right to your project.

Ning.com: The most basic, and oldest of the create your own social network sites. Read full review here....

Goingon.com: The enterprise edition of create-your-own social network. Aside from the usual social networking tools (profiles, groups, discussion forums, photos, videos, etc.) it includes a sophisticated content management system. You can have an army of authors who can write blogs, and the system manages smoothly where the content appears and how. You can build the equivalent of full news portal (think CNN) for your organization. If you wished to build something like this out of your own pocket you'd be down at least 10-20k... Read full review here...

Wamily.com: The most cutting edge look-wise and function-wise of the create-your-own social network tools. However, it lacks the content management tools of Goingon.com.  Read full review here...

The winner?

If you want basic functions that have been well-tested, Ning.
If you are running a business or non-profit, and have multiple authors and want advanced functionality, GoingOn.
And if you want to have the techie edge (with some bugs), Wamily.

Next off... we'll cover sophisticated tools for creating your own homepage...