The University of Oxford has the highest social media following of any university in the UK according to an analysis by student video production company Uni Shoots.
The university has more than 3,000,000 followers across Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. The University of Cambridge came in second with just over 2,000,000 followers, followed by the London School of Economics and Politics with 522,121 followers.
The video production company, set up by graduates, cross-referenced the social media ranking with the Guardian's 2018 University League Table to see whether a high rank correlated with the number of followers on social media.
It turned out to be quite a varied correlation, with the universities of Oxford and Cambridge occupying the first and second places in both rankings. However, London Metropolitan University took the fourth place position in the social media ranking but was 117th in the Guardian University League Table.
Facebook was the platform that people were most engaged in, with the highest number of followers across all universities.
Ross Lindgren, the founder of Uni Shoots, said: "We decided to focus on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube in our initial research as conversations we’ve had with students indicated these were the most used platforms in recent years." He added that that in the future they would would be planning research on Twitter and Snapchat usage.
The Uni Shoots team concluded that universities that were the most active on social media also had higher followers across all of the platforms. This trend was particularly noticeable on Youtube.
The University Social Media League Table 2017
Rank | University | Total social media following | Web page visits (in millions past 6 months) | Facebook followers | Instagram followers | Youtube subscribers |
Collected on 1/11/2017 | Collected on 8/11/2017 from SimilarWeb | Collected on 1/11/2017 | Collected on 1/11/2017 | Collected on 1/11/2017 | ||
1 | University of Oxford | 3,748,279 | 16.02 | 3,407,489 | 249,000 | 91,790 |
2 | University of Cambridge | 2,228,775 | 16.9 | 1,904,924 | 226,000 | 97,851 |
3 | London School of Economics and Political Science | 522,121 | 6.55 | 374,488 | 52,600 | 95,033 |
4 | London Metropolitan University | 378,867 | 0.62 | 373,877 | 3175 | 1815 |
5 | University of Birmingham | 256,120 | 1.84 | 210,020 | 32,100 | 14,000 |
6 | University of Edinburgh | 248,664 | 9.35 | 196,299 | 25,400 | 26,965 |
7 | University of Glasgow | 239,600 | 5.62 | 196,803 | 35,600 | 7,197 |
8 | King’s College Londonxl65" data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":231416}" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,2,"#,##0",1]" data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[4],R[0]C[5],R[0]C[6])">231,416 | 4.24 | 214,155 | 5214 | 12,047 | |
9 | Imperial College London | 231,410 | 6.27 | 156,581 | 30,300 | 44,529 |
10 | University of Salford | 220,471 | 1.32 | 213,324 | 5136 | 2011 |
11 | UCL | 217,048 | 9.84 | 172,689 | 39,300 | 5059 |
12 | Coventry University | 211,972 | 2.57 | 202,109 | 9863 | 0 |
13 | University of Manchester | 193,249 | 7.02 | 160,214 | 23,100 | 9935 |
14 | University of Nottingham | 181,218 | 5.04 | 130,301 | 27,600 | 23,317 |
15 | London South Bank University | 168,158 | 1.04 | 160,462 | 6071 | 1625 |
16 | University of Kent | 164,577 | 4.61 | 154,613 | 6049 | 3915 |
17 | University of Sheffield | 158,328 | 4.06 | 125,701 | 26,400 | 6227 |
18 | Oxford Brookes University | 148,638 | 0.96 | 138,474 | 5062 | 5102 |
19 | City, University of London | 142,024 | 2.17 | 133,424 | 4,832 | 3768 |
20 | University of the West of England | 139,062 | 2.41 | 129,748 | 5744 | 3570 |
21 | University of Leeds | 130,326 | 5.63 | 97,595 | 28,900 | 3,831 |
22 | University of Westminster | 126,911 | 2 | 109,815 | 8399 | 8697 |
23 | University of Surrey | 126,393 | 3.77 | 101,114 | 15,000 | 10,279 |
24 | University of Newcastle | 124,661 | 4.15 | 99,148 | 21,100 | 4413 |
25 | University of Southampton | 122,860 | 1.84 | 105,754 | 12,400 | 4706 |
26 | Queen Mary University of London | 122,075 | 4.23 | 111,498 | 7,779 | 2798 |
27 | University of Warwick | 115,738 | 5.27 | 91,821 | 19,700 | 4,217 |
28 | University of Greenwich | 115,499 | 1.43 | 107,356 | 8143 | 0 |
29 | Middlesex University | 113,615 | 1.27 | 104,138 | 6533 | 2944 |
30 | University of Roehampton | 110,565 | 0.93 | 104,515 | 5193 | 857 |
31 | University of York | 110,156 | 2.73 | 95,501 | 11,200 | 3455 |
32 | Lancaster University | 108,725 | 1.95 | 92,583 | 12,900 | 3,242 |
33 | Cardiff University | 108,658 | 3.01 | 93,658 | 15,000 | 0 |
34 | University of Bristol | 108,009 | 1.85 | 78,807 | 20,400 | 8802 |
35 | University of East Anglia | 103,447 | 1.42 | 88,702 | 11,800 | 2945 |
36 | University of the Arts London | 103,426 | 1.56 | 70,783 | 25400 | 7243 |
37 | De Montfort University | 98,720 | 2.41 | 81,436 | 14600 | 2684 |
38 | University of Exeter | 95,846 | 3.25 | 76,179 | 15,500 | 4167 |
39 | Goldsmiths, University of London | 94,705 | 1.38 | 83,316 | 8821 | 2568 |
40 | University of Derby | 94,233 | 1.06 | 81,506 | 6579 | 6148 |
41 | Birmingham City University | 93,355 | 1.98 | 85,659 | 3867 | 3829 |
42 | Royal Holloway, University of London | 89,589 | 1.61 | 79,379 | 9072 | 1138 |
43 | Trent University | 87,604 | 1.82 | 70,465 | 13,600 | 3539 |
44 | University of Sussex | 85,580 | 2.76 | 67,745 | 15,200 | 2635 |
45 | Bangor University | 85,055 | 1.32 | 76,567 | 5517 | 2971 |
46 | University of Essex | 84,458 | 2.53 | 68,331 | 8071 | 8056 |
47 | University of the West of Scotland | 83,200 | 0.48 | 80,697 | 1788 | 715 |
48 | Brunel University London | 82,656 | 1.47 | 72,134 | 7019 | 3503 |
49 | University of Sunderland | 81,551 | 0.81 | 74,606 | 5550 | 1395 |
50 | Edinburgh Napier University | 80,870 | 0.83 | 77,294 | 2408 | 1168 |
51 | University of South Wales | 80,465 | 1.64 | 43,342 | 6423 | 30700 |
52 | Anglia Ruskin University | 79,117 | 1.06 | 73,056 | 4246 | 1815 |
53 | University of Aberdeen | 77,745 | 1.93 | 66,633 | 8799 | 2313 |
54 | University of Hertfordshire | 77,353 | 2.12 | 71,363 | 3677 | 2313 |
55 | University of Dundee | 76,665 | 1.2 | 66,821 | 6,235 | 3609 |
56 | University of Liverpool | 74,365 | 1.64 | 62,793 | 8903 | 2669 |
57 | Kingston University | 73,335 | 1.16 | 60,843 | 8929 | 3563 |
58 | Loughborough University | 73,117 | 2.23 | 52,467 | 16,400 | 4,250 |
59 | University of Strathclyde | 72,328 | 2.78 | 64,050 | 6151 | 2127 |
60 | University of Leicester | 72,323 | 4.34 | 48,715 | 7,055 | 16,553 |
61 | Sheffield Hallam University | 71,549 | 1.71 | 62,496 | 7,652 | 1401 |
62 | Northumbria University | 70,917 | 1.07 | 61,301 | 8483 | 1133 |
63 | University of Portsmouth | 70,528 | 1.56 | 60,646 | 8413 | 1469 |
64 | Heriot-Watt University | 69,533 | 2.09 | 66,638 | 1101 | 1794 |
65 | Queen's University Belfast | 69,100 | 2.28 | 66,294 | 840 | 1966 |
66 | University of Bath | 69,056 | 2.6 | 61,128 | 3,914 | 4,014 |
67 | University of East London | 67,444 | 1.1 | 61,273 | 3790 | 2381 |
68 | University of Central Lancashire | 65,516 | 1.12 | 58,722 | 5038 | 1756 |
69 | Soas, University of London | 64,739 | 1.33 | 52,534 | 5,157 | 7048 |
70 | Manchester Metropolitan University | 64,356 | 1.77 | 57,564 | 5437 | 1355 |
71 | Leeds Beckett University | 63,347 | 0.93 | 53,794 | 8377 | 1176 |
72 | Aston University | 62,863 | 1.51 | 51,295 | 9340 | 2228 |
73 | Robert Gordon University | 58,977 | 0.74 | 54,291 | 3374 | 1312 |
74 | Teesside University | 58,470 | 0.63 | 53,243 | 5111 | 116 |
75 | University of Reading | 55,814 | 1.86 | 44,865 | 8305 | 2644 |
76 | Plymouth University | 55,228 | 1.54 | 47,614 | 6019 | 1595 |
77 | Canterbury Christ Church University | 54,862 | 0.58 | 51,422 | 2621 | 819 |
78 | University of St Andrews | 53,168 | 2.24 | 42,285 | 9,917 | 966 |
79 | University of Lincoln | 52,595 | 2.17 | 43,441 | 9069 | 85 |
80 | University of Brighton | 52,523 | 1.69 | 48,370 | 2229 | 1924 |
81 | University of Stirling | 52,424 | 0.92 | 45,000 | 6820 | 604 |
82 | Staffordshire University | 51,917 | 1.13 | 46,509 | 3882 | 1526 |
83 | University of Hull | 51,179 | 1.37 | 44,022 | 6118 | 1039 |
84 | University of Northampton | 49,659 | 0.44 | 45,073 | 3153 | 1433 |
85 | Durham University | 48,901 | 1.51 | 26,738 | 16,100 | 6063 |
86 | Keele University | 48,139 | 0.89 | 38,641 | 7898 | 1600 |
87 | Bournemouth University | 47,959 | 1.57 | 36,126 | 8903 | 2930 |
88 | Birkbeck, University of London | 47,369 | 1.12 | 42,722 | 2012 | 2635 |
89 | Swansea University | 47,044 | 1.57 | 38,701 | 7436 | 907 |
90 | University of Huddersfield | 46,662 | 1.14 | 38,289 | 6782 | 1,591 |
91 | University of Bedfordshire | 43,797 | 0.79 | 39,455 | 2224 | 2118 |
92 | Edge Hill University | 39,152 | 0.61 | 31,065 | 6460 | 1627 |
93 | Glasgow Caledonian University | 36,040 | 0.66 | 33,936 | 2104 | 0 |
94 | Cardiff Metropolitan University | 35,105 | 0.62 | 29,851 | 4341 | 913 |
95 | University for the Creative Arts | 34,846 | 0.27 | 26,590 | 6,210 | 2046 |
96 | Liverpool John Moores University | 33,615 | 1.27 | 26,032 | 2941 | 4642 |
97 | Southampton Solent University | 33,210 | 1.09 | 29,107 | 2703 | 1400 |
98 | University of Suffolk | 32,087 | 0.17 | 25,221 | 5968 | 898 |
99 | Falmouth University | 30,197 | 0.62 | 22,449 | 7,017 | 731 |
100 | University of Gloucestershire | 27,629 | 0.46 | 25,566 | 1311 | 752 |
101 | University of Bolton | 26,571 | 0.57 | 23,497 | 2681 | 393 |
102 | University of Bradford | 24,387 | 0.88 | 19,538 | 3079 | 1770 |
103 | University of Chester | 24,284 | 0.44 | 16,534 | 6758 | 992 |
104 | Aberystwyth University | 23,529 | 1.43 | 21,235 | 521 | 1773 |
105 | York St John University | 22,423 | 0.44 | 18,856 | 3130 | 437 |
106 | Buckinghamshire New University | 22,033 | 0.2 | 18,856 | 2573 | 604 |
107 | Bath Spa University | 21,536 | 0.66 | 17,796 | 3071 | 669 |
108 | Ulster University | 21,385 | 0.83 | 19,873 | 1039 | 473 |
109 | St Mary’s University, Twickenham | 20,031 | 0.22 | 17,400 | 1734 | 897 |
110 | University of Worcester | 18,685 | 0.28 | 14,717 | 3461 | 507 |
111 | University of Winchester | 18,629 | 0.48 | 15,972 | 1851 | 806 |
112 | University of West London | 18,178 | 0.55 | 15,203 | 1,727 | 1248 |
113 | University of Cumbria | 17,831 | 0.33 | 15,186 | 1998 | 647 |
114 | Queen Margaret University | 17,706 | 0.17 | 16,063 | 1332 | 311 |
115 | Abertay University | 17,406 | 0.33 | 15,898 | 802 | 706 |
116 | Liverpool Hope University | 15,718 | 0.27 | 13,602 | 1684 | 432 |
117 | University of Wales Trinity Saint David | 14,251 | 0.29 | 13,601 | 0 | 650 |
118 | Trinity University | 13,292 | 0.15 | 11,103 | 1853 | 336 |
119 | University of Chichester | 12,434 | 0.07 | 10,031 | 2271 | 132 |
120 | Newman University | 6,126 | 0.17 | 5,234 | 697 | 195 |
121 | Wrexham Glyndwr University | 3,723 | 0.21 | 2,153 | 1030 | 540 |
Read more: How international students use social media to choose a UK university
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