In today’s digital age, having an online presence is imperative. There are several different ways to achieve this, and today we cover a few options and easy systems you can use.

First – we will focus on building your personal brand. This is important no matter what you are doing, from running a hobby property business to full-time sourcing agent to HMO landlord to property developer. Everyone should have an online presence for their personal brand. This is the ‘you’ that you want the world to see – to help them understand what you stand for and what you believe in. It will help people get to know, like and trust you, and build your reputation as an expert in your field(s).

To achieve this, you can simply use the free social media tools that are available to everyone. A LinkedIn page is perfect for the more professional focus, and LinkedIn has a lot of tools for creating and sharing articles and posts with the world. The same with Facebook, but be careful about melding your personal and professional Facebook lives too closely – Facebook has some rules around this. To build a presence around your property / business persona, I suggest building a Facebook Business Page as the main place to share and build up your personal brand.

Slideshare is another great tool that is often overlooked. It is owned by LinkedIn but run from a separate platform, and is a great social media tool for posting presentations, articles and other marketing materials. Materials posted to Slideshare feature highly in search results and because it is owned by LinkedIn, you can cross reference files between the two profiles. Slideshare is a great place to put investor packs, example deals, marketing files, business plans, and other documents that illustrate who you are and how you can help.

The social media presence will be enough for some. For others, a personal website will be the next step. And if you are running your property company as a business, then you definitely need a business website. Building credibility in today’s online world is hard without a web presence.

Most people and businesses don’t need a fancy website with all the bells and whistles, especially when started out. The main purpose of most websites, particularly for property investors, is to increase your

credibility, and explain more about yourself and your business to the world. Many spend hundreds or thousands of pounds on their first website, then wait weeks to months for it to be built, only to be disappointed with the results. A website is a very personal thing; everyone’s tastes and expectations are different. Portraying the image and feel of your business to an outsider, and relying on them to create your window to the world can be difficult. Plus, it’s too expensive for most who are just starting out. Which is why I recommend building your own website.

There are some amazing tools you can use to get started (I’ve outlined a few below). These will take a bit of technical knowhow and an eye for style – but I do believe that’s within the capabilities of most people.

1. WordPress (www.wordpress.org) is the norm for most people getting started with websites. A variety of themes and plugins will allow your site to do absolutely everything! All the bells and whistles are here. The only downside is that it can be a bit complex when you start – you do need to be technically savvy and know some coding. Also, be aware that there is a difference between wordpress.org (free software that helps you edit and create a website, you purchase the domain and hosting elsewhere) and wordpress.com (a hosted all-in-one platform common with bloggers). Generally, for business, you want wordpress.org. 2. Weebly (www.weebly.com) is my top pick if you want quick, simple and professional. This is my favourite website building tool; I’ve been using it for over 5 years and it meets all the needs of my personal and our property investing websites

(www.PropertyGoToGirl.co.uk, www.JADEPropertySolutions.co.uk and www.JADERoomLets.co.uk).

Simply pick a template from their beautiful designs, then you can easily add your own text and images without having to know any coding, by using their easy drag and drop editing system. 3. Wix (www.wix.com) and Squarespace (www.squarespace.com) are similar to Weebly – all have easy to use editors that don’t demand coding knowhow in order to build beautiful websites.

Of course there are downfalls to building your own website. They take time and effort to build and maintain. You won’t benefit from the knowledge of a professional web designer who has studied and knows the ins and outs of websites. But I believe that generally the pros out-weight the cons in the lower cost, quicker start-up, and ease of edits. One of the biggest downfalls I’ve had with someone else building my website is that I was never able to just pop in and make changes. All changes required going back to the web designer, paying, then waiting for the updates to be made.

I hope the tools we’ve shared over the past few months have helped you meet your 2016 goals, and will take you through making 2017 even better! See you again in the New Year!

BUILDING YOUR WEB PRESENCEBy Jeff Hancock, Jacquie Edwards and Anthony D’Souza

Jacquie Edwards is the author of “Rent to Rent: Your Questions Answered”

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