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UK university social media league table 2017

Social media is an easy way to keep in touch with your university but which universities in the UK have the highest social media followings?

    Seeta Bhardwa's avatar

    Seeta Bhardwa

    Editor, THE Student
    November 21 2017
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    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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