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According to an analysis of university Twitter accounts between 31 January - 31 March 2014, the UK’s top 10 universities (based on the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2013-2014) had more than 400,000 followers in total, and yet none were sending out more than an average of four tweets a day.
The University of Oxford was the least frequent tweeter, sending out around just one tweet a day while receiving 86 mentions from other Twitter users. The University of Bristol was the most prolific tweeter, sending out between three and four tweets per day, while Manchester was the best at interacting with its followers, with a quarter of its tweets sent to other Twitter accounts.
The UK university Twitter accounts were used predominantly for broadcasting university-specific and industry news, and unlike Manchester, most had a less than 10 per cent engagement rate for their tweets (the percentage of total tweets that were directed at others). Three of the universities - Oxford, the London School of Economics and Kings’s College London - sent out no direct tweets during the two-month period.
The research was carried out by social media analysis company Brandwatch.
Total followers
| 1 | University of Oxford | 123,001 |
| 2 | University of Cambridge | 109,8 |
| 3 | University of Edinburgh | 35,100 |
| 4 | University of Bristol | 29,861 |
| 5 | Imperial College London | 26,608 |
| 6 | University College London | 24,520 |
| 7 | King’s College London | 24,307 |
| 8 | Durham University | 14,078 |
| 9 | London School of Economics | 13,370 |
| 10 | University of Manchester | 3,413 |
University handle tweets (total/per day)
| 1 | University of Bristol | 234 | 3.9 |
| 2 | University College London | 192 | 3.25 |
| 3 | Imperial College London | 191 | 3.2 |
| 4 | University of Cambridge | 166 | 2.8 |
| 5 | University of Manchester | 161 | 2.7 |
| 6 | King’s College London | 141 | 2.4 |
| 7 | University of Edinburgh | 137 | 2.3 |
| =8 | Durham University | 123 | 2.1 |
| =8 | London School of Economics | 123 | 2.1 |
| 10 | University of Oxford | 74 | 1.25 |
University engagement with others (percentage of tweets directed at other users)
| 1 | University of Manchester | 25 |
| 2 | University of Edinburgh | 23 |
| =3 | Durham University | 9 |
| =3 | University of Bristol | 9 |
| 5 | Imperial College London | 6 |
| 6 | University College London | 5 |
| 7 | University of Cambridge | 3 |
| =8 | London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) | 0 |
| =8 | King’s College London | 0 |
| =8 | University of Oxford | 0 |
