Cambridge ranked ‘most visible’ on social networks

A ranking produced by Econsultancy has listed the University’s website as the most visible Russell Group website on some of the biggest social media networks.

New research by digital publisher Econsultancy into the visibility of universities digital content on some of the major social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter, has placed the University of Cambridge top amongst the Russell Group.

The ranking is based on the amount of direct links to University websites that are shared, liked and tweeted by social media users over an eight week period across the end of last year and start of this one.

Econsultancy estimates that taken altogether there are roughly 207,900 links every week linking to content on Russell Group university websites, with Facebook being the major player for higher education representation on social sites – accounting for around 80% of all links.

Cambridge came top with a visibility score of 462, 823 – narrowly beating age-old rivals Oxford who came in second with 442, 758. In third was the London School of Economics with just over half Oxford’s score, with Newcastle University in fourth.

Data from twenty Russell Group universities was analysed to compile the ranking. The main type of content shared were news stories about research or institutional initiatives, with much of the content targeted at the current university population – although the study suggests that this content provides interesting insights into life at a particular institution.