What social media platforms are most effective in generating buzz about a business–Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, or a combination of these? Online Trading Academy can give you clues as an institution that has been effective in using social media to reach out to its audience and community of traders and investors.

Online Trading Academy knows that prospective students will want to do research and read reviews and competitive information before signing up for a class at one of their financial education centers. They use social media as one method to offer a variety of readily available information, such as student reviews, free educational content and more. Online Trading Academy also engages with its community of current students by providing updates on company events, webinars, and other pertinent information.

Other businesses should similarly examine their target audiences in order to decide what their social media strategy will be and what sites will benefit them. Every company will have different goals when it comes to what they want to achieve with social media, and not every social media site may be right for every business. For example, Online Trading Academy has active social media profiles on these major social sites:

Twitterappeals to people looking for financial news or trading education. In addition to posts from the Online Trading Academy account, Chief Knowledge Officer John O’Donnell will often tweet his own viewpoints as @OTArainmaker.

Facebookserves as almost a mini-version of the Online Trading Academy website, with an invitation to a free trading workshop, access to free articles in its archives, and lively conversations back and forth between employees and students giving Online Trading Academy reviews.

YouTubehosts videos of some of the most popular Online Trading Academy instructors sharing educational content and information about Online Trading Academy in general. There are also many student testimonial videos wherein real students share their experiences and opinions.

Online Trading Academy also can be found on image-sharing sites Flickr and Pinterest where there are some great “pins” illustrating economic lessons. And document sharing sites like Scribd, Slideshare and DocStocare a great repository of education materials both for students and for people looking to learn trading on their own. Online Trading Academy reviews (also found here) provide great insight into student’s past experiences with the academy.

Online Trading Academy is an example of a company using social media to enhance their online presence and engage with current and prospective customers. Other businesses can and should follow suit to take advantage of social media as a resource to achieve similar goals.

About Online Trading Academy: Online Trading Academy offers financial education for traders and investors wanting to succeed in the markets and learn to trade. Founded in 1997 as a trading floor, Online Trading Academy later shifted its focus to offer training and coaching around how to trade more consistently and profitably. Today Online Trading Academy has 32 worldwide centers and has educated over 30,000 students.