Many universities really have got to grips with social media in recent years, and new research highlights Oxford and Sheffield as competing with the best US institutions.
The study by Sociagility showed that American colleges used social media most effectively, but some of their British counterparts performed well too.
A handy Mashable summary pulled out the top 10 – headed by Harvard, Pennsylvania and MIT. But here we look more closely at the report’s findings on UK universities.
The study examined the performance of leading UK and US universities in the 2011–2012 Times Higher Education World University Rankings and compared them with scores based on Sociagility’s proprietary PRINT™ measurement system.
This measures social media performance across five social attributes and on multiple platforms.
UK Sociagility ranking:
Oxford PRINT index 158 THES ranking 4
Sheffield 153 101
Cambridge 125 6
Lancaster 98 131
UCL 94 17
The report highlights Sheffield, Lancaster and Nottingham (which placed sixth) for “using social media to punch well above their weight”.
The individual measures which create the ranking also provide interesting reading.
Here are the top three in each measure:
Popularity:
1. Cambridge 162
2. Oxford 147
3. Sheffield 125
Receptiveness:
Sheffield 378
Nottingham 226
Birkbeck, London 214
Interaction:
Lancaster 270
Oxford 224
Sheffield 154
Network reach:
Oxford 196
Cambridge 144
LSE 70
Trust
Oxford 179
Cambridge 134
UCL 94
Channel performance:
Website
1. Oxford
Twitter
Lancaster
Facebook
Oxford
YouTube
1. Sheffield
Weltch Media provides expert communications consultancy, including social media, for higher education.