Internet marketing company Coldlime has been crunching the numbers for the 100 top-ranked universities in the UK and the US, and has produced what it believes is a definitive list of the most influential higher education institutions on both sides of the Atlantic.
These tables show how many people are following each university, how many people they follow themselves (allowing a “follower ratio” to be calculated) and the number of tweets each account sends out per day, on average.
However, we have chosen to rank the institutions by their “social authority” score - as calculated by Twitter analytics tool , which assesses each Twitter account’s level of influential activity. This includes the number of retweets the university is generating, and analysis of the user’s follower count and recent activity levels. .
Top 100 most influential UK universities on Twitter
(based on Twitter data collected 1 May 2014)
University | Following | Followers | Ratio | Tweets/day | Social Authority |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plymouth | 1,254 | 21,600 | 17.2 | 7.2 | 72 |
Glasgow | 2,032 | 36,700 | 18.1 | 2.4 | 69 |
Birmingham | 996 | 37,500 | 37.7 | 8.8 | 68 |
UEA | 1,202 | 22,000 | 18.3 | 5.4 | 66 |
Swansea | 1,015 | 13,800 | 13.6 | 5.6 | 65 |
Oxford | 167 | 138,000 | 826.3 | 0.9 | 64 |
Sussex | 3,900 | 30,900 | 7.9 | 6.1 | 64 |
Robert Gordon | 1,009 | 10,300 | 10.2 | 2.7 | 64 |
Ulster | 713 | 18,200 | 25.5 | 4.5 | 64 |
Kent | 481 | 20,800 | 43.2 | 4.1 | 63 |
Nottingham | 2,234 | 29,900 | 13.4 | 7.1 | 63 |
Sheffield | 19,000 | 37,400 | 2.0 | 2.7 | 63 |
Cardiff | 451 | 32,528 | 72.1 | 2.5 | 62 |
Essex | 983 | 19,800 | 20.1 | 8.5 | 62 |
Cambridge | 558 | 117,000 | 209.7 | 2.1 | 61 |
Lancaster | 743 | 24,300 | 32.7 | 3.8 | 61 |
Loughborough | 931 | 15,500 | 16.6 | 4.1 | 61 |
Warwick | 2,294 | 32,700 | 14.3 | 3.3 | 60 |
Aston | 603 | 19,300 | 32.0 | 3.1 | 60 |
Huddersfield | 3,409 | 17,700 | 5.2 | 4.3 | 60 |
Aberdeen | 3,493 | 22,600 | 6.5 | 2.4 | 60 |
Lincoln | 291 | 13,100 | 45.0 | 4.2 | 60 |
De Montfort | 507 | 12,200 | 24.1 | 4.9 | 60 |
Salford | 731 | 24,100 | 33.0 | 3.8 | 60 |
Bath | 4 | 28,700 | 67.2 | 3.7 | 59 |
Surrey | 1,290 | 23,100 | 17.9 | 2.6 | 59 |
Bristol | 161 | 31,000 | 192.5 | 2.6 | 59 |
Coventry | 833 | 18,900 | 22.7 | 6.2 | 59 |
Manchester Met | 428 | 24,700 | 57.7 | 2.2 | 59 |
Leicester | 2,525 | 20,400 | 8.1 | 3.5 | 58 |
Dundee | 1,991 | 19,600 | 9.8 | 6.2 | 58 |
Liverpool | 623 | 24,400 | 39.2 | 5.9 | 58 |
Teesside | 1,616 | 20,700 | 12.8 | 4.4 | 58 |
Kingston | 110 | 21,000 | 190.9 | 2.2 | 58 |
UCL | 1,025 | 25,600 | 25.0 | 3.0 | 57 |
Edinburgh | 391 | 36,600 | 93.6 | 1.8 | 57 |
Northampton | 3,082 | 9,834 | 3.2 | 6.2 | 57 |
Liverpool John Moores | 507 | 12,400 | 24.5 | 2.2 | 57 |
Sheffield Hallam | 1,929 | 25,400 | 13.2 | 2.2 | 57 |
Edinburgh Napier | 803 | 14,000 | 17.4 | 2.9 | 57 |
Exeter | 7,643 | 25,800 | 3.4 | 4.1 | 56 |
York | 548 | 26,600 | 48.5 | 2.0 | 56 |
Southampton | 906 | 20,600 | 22.7 | 2.2 | 56 |
Leeds | 544 | 32,400 | 59.6 | 1.8 | 56 |
Reading | 447 | 11,300 | 25.3 | 2.2 | 56 |
Goldsmiths | 682 | 15,600 | 22.9 | 1.3 | 56 |
Sunderland | 508 | 9,6 | 18.3 | 7.1 | 56 |
Anglia Ruskin | 311 | 13,300 | 42.8 | 1.6 | 56 |
Derby | 3,177 | 17,100 | 5.4 | 4.3 | 56 |
Central Lancashire | 705 | 16,300 | 23.1 | 3.5 | 56 |
Worcester | 264 | 7,541 | 28.6 | 2.6 | 56 |
St Andrews | 298 | 17,400 | 58.4 | 0.8 | 55 |
King’s College London | 1,001 | 25,100 | 25.1 | 1.1 | 55 |
Keele | 2,365 | 18,600 | 7.9 | 2.9 | 55 |
Bournemouth | 353 | 18,700 | 53.0 | 5.1 | 55 |
University of the Arts London | 3,622 | 15,500 | 4.3 | 3.1 | 55 |
Birmingham City | 312 | 14,500 | 46.5 | 3.9 | 55 |
Falmouth | 866 | 10,000 | 11.5 | 8.4 | 55 |
Bradford | 937 | 15,500 | 16.5 | 2.7 | 55 |
Staffordshire | 776 | 14,700 | 18.9 | 7.2 | 55 |
Durham | 1,610 | 14,600 | 9.1 | 1.8 | 54 |
Chester | 324 | 12,900 | 39.8 | 2.2 | 54 |
Bangor | 359 | 16,500 | 46.0 | 2.0 | 54 |
Edge Hill | 986 | 17,300 | 17.5 | 2.6 | 53 |
Nottingham Trent | 1,691 | 19,300 | 11.4 | 3.6 | 53 |
Hertfordshire | 785 | 14,900 | 19.0 | 2.9 | 53 |
Aberystwyth | 5,535 | 14,700 | 2.7 | 2.3 | 53 |
Westminster | 2,730 | 15,200 | 5.6 | 1.0 | 53 |
Strathclyde | 416 | 17,200 | 41.3 | 0.9 | 52 |
Oxford Brookes | 1,070 | 15,200 | 14.2 | 1.6 | 52 |
Queen Mary | 4,746 | 18,600 | 3.9 | 1.8 | 52 |
Portsmouth | 623 | 16,100 | 25.8 | 2.1 | 52 |
Queen’s, Belfast | 373 | 17,200 | 46.1 | 2.1 | 52 |
Northumbria | 334 | 15,500 | 46.4 | 1.4 | 52 |
Hull | 1,083 | 18,500 | 17.1 | 1.8 | 52 |
Winchester | 457 | 5,802 | 12.7 | 7.2 | 52 |
Glasgow Caledonian | 776 | 8,925 | 11.5 | 5.3 | 52 |
Newcastle | 307 | 10,900 | 35.5 | 1.2 | 50 |
Royal Holloway | 467 | 10,900 | 23.3 | 1.4 | 50 |
Heriot-Watt | 397 | 10,400 | 26.2 | 1.1 | 49 |
Brunel | 203 | 10,600 | 52.2 | 2.1 | 49 |
Chichester | 370 | 10,800 | 29.2 | 1.1 | 49 |
Imperial College | 2,643 | ,500 | 10.4 | 1.1 | 48 |
Stirling | 145 | 9,319 | 64.3 | 1.2 | 48 |
Bath Spa | 119 | 13,000 | 109.2 | 1.8 | 48 |
London School of Economics | 516 | 13,900 | 26.9 | 0.7 | 47 |
SOAS | 205 | 10,900 | 53.2 | 1.5 | 47 |
City | 488 | 11,100 | 22.7 | 1.5 | 47 |
York St John | 296 | 9,710 | 32.8 | 1.6 | 47 |
Brighton | 241 | 16,800 | 69.7 | 1.6 | 46 |
Gloucestershire | 462 | 11,000 | 23.8 | 2.0 | 46 |
UWE Bristol | 582 | 7,365 | 12.7 | 1.3 | 45 |
West London | 2,028 | 4,241 | 2.1 | 3.2 | 45 |
St Mary’s UC, Twickenham | 247 | 5,063 | 20.5 | 1.6 | 44 |
Buckingham | 235 | 7,166 | 30.5 | 0.8 | 43 |
UC Suffolk | 181 | 2,960 | 16.4 | 1.2 | 40 |
Queen Margaret | 251 | 6,366 | 25.4 | 0.5 | 39 |
Newman University | 85 | 1,840 | 21.6 | 0.7 | 39 |
Greenwich | 137 | 2,362 | 17.2 | 3.0 | 35 |
Manchester | 235 | 1,444 | 6.1 | 1.0 | 21 |
Editor’s note: The UK table has been updated to reflect changes made by Coldlime after the original publication of the data.
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Top 100 most influential US universities on Twitter
(based on Twitter data collected 1 May 2014)
University | Following | Followers | Ratio | Tweets/day | Social Authority |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
University of Texas, Austin | 907 | 76,100 | 83.9 | 5.3 | 81 |
University of Wisconsin, Madison | 1,857 | 66,500 | 35.8 | 15.2 | 79 |
Indiana University, Bloomington | 441 | 96,000 | 217.7 | 7.2 | 78 |
Harvard University | 586 | 360,000 | 614.3 | 11.9 | 77 |
University of Florida | 141 | 66,600 | 472.3 | 7.8 | 77 |
Pennsylvania State University, University Park | 537 | 68,300 | 1.2 | 7.2 | 75 |
University of Notre Dame | 281 | 43,700 | 155.5 | 2.5 | 74 |
Stanford University | 895 | 204,000 | 2.9 | 4.7 | 71 |
University of Virginia | 1,483 | 33,600 | 22.7 | 3.4 | 71 |
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor | 811 | 71,400 | 88 | 4.8 | 71 |
Georgia Institute of Technology | 2,060 | 30,500 | 14.8 | 3.3 | 70 |
University of California, Los Angeles | 259 | 53,400 | 206.2 | 1.6 | 68 |
Boston College | 3,329 | 39,600 | 11.9 | 7.7 | 68 |
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | 6,316 | 22,600 | 3.6 | 4.7 | 68 |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 325 | 120,000 | 369.2 | 2.2 | 67 |
Cornell University | 179 | 72,800 | 406.7 | 2.3 | 67 |
Princeton University | 445 | 99,400 | 223.4 | 5.4 | 66 |
New York University | 470 | 20,500 | 43.6 | 1.2 | 66 |
Yale University | 208 | 135,000 | 649 | 4.1 | 65 |
Brown University | 438 | 53,300 | 121.7 | 2.9 | 65 |
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill | 481 | 21,900 | 45.5 | 3.2 | 65 |
Vanderbilt University | 1,853 | 21,400 | 11.5 | 4.4 | 64 |
Boston University | 18,300 | 41,300 | 2.3 | 3.9 | 64 |
United States Military Academy | 174 | 19,800 | 113.8 | 2.7 | 63 |
University of Southern California | 3,581 | 51,900 | 14.5 | 5.2 | 63 |
Columbia University | 246 | 61,600 | 250.4 | 3.9 | 62 |
University of Pennsylvania | 991 | 40,700 | 41.1 | 5.8 | 62 |
George Washington University | 1,707 | 22,900 | 13.4 | 2.6 | 62 |
Duke University | 381 | 23,600 | 61.9 | 6.9 | 61 |
Northwestern University | 434 | 21,800 | 50.2 | 4.2 | 61 |
Johns Hopkins University | 3,780 | 40,400 | 10.7 | 7.7 | 61 |
Southern Methodist University | 3,769 | 18,300 | 4.9 | 4.4 | 61 |
Dartmouth College | 1,451 | 17,600 | 12.1 | 6.5 | 60 |
University of Washington | 1,439 | 63,500 | 44.1 | 3.4 | 60 |
University of Georgia | 180 | ,000 | 150 | 2.4 | 60 |
Tufts University | 6,263 | 23,900 | 3.8 | 4.8 | 58 |
Georgetown University | 2,234 | ,800 | 12.4 | 1.3 | 58 |
University of Chicago | 1,146 | 15,400 | 13.4 | 4.6 | 57 |
College of William and Mary | 164 | 13,900 | 84.8 | 1.8 | 57 |
United States Air Force Academy | 318 | 8,471 | 26.6 | 2.1 | 56 |
Rice University | 585 | 14,300 | 24.4 | 4.2 | 56 |
Brandeis University | 4,635 | 12,300 | 2.7 | 1.5 | 56 |
University of Rochester | 4,039 | 10,500 | 2.6 | 2.3 | 56 |
Carnegie Mellon University | 621 | 23,300 | 37.5 | 3 | 55 |
Lehigh University | 2,475 | 9,290 | 3.8 | 3.6 | 55 |
University of California, Davis | 1,204 | 12,700 | 10.5 | 6.5 | 55 |
Colgate University | 3,103 | 12,200 | 3.9 | 8.7 | 54 |
Washington University in Saint Louis | 281 | 11,500 | 40.9 | 1.5 | 54 |
College of the Holy Cross | 7,210 | 7,678 | 1.1 | 5.1 | 54 |
Brigham Young University | 240 | 18,100 | 75.4 | 1.4 | 54 |
University of California, Berkeley | 816 | 28,500 | 34.9 | 3.2 | 53 |
Wellesley College | 321 | 7,837 | 24.4 | 1.9 | 53 |
Bryn Mawr College | 966 | 5,063 | 5.2 | 3.9 | 53 |
Wake Forest University | 597 | 7,249 | 12.1 | 1.8 | 53 |
Bowdoin College | 2,032 | 5,624 | 2.8 | 4 | 52 |
Smith College | 1,781 | 10,700 | 6 | 5 | 52 |
University of Richmond | 856 | 10,100 | 11.8 | 2.3 | 52 |
Pepperdine University | 190 | 5,629 | 29.6 | 0.9 | 52 |
California Institute of Technology | 58 | 16,900 | 291.4 | 1.2 | 51 |
United States Naval Academy | 38 | 11,500 | 302.6 | 0.5 | 50 |
Barnard College | 1,679 | 7,167 | 4.3 | 0.8 | 50 |
University of Maryland, College Park | 1,337 | 26,200 | 19.6 | 4 | 50 |
Villanova University | 2,313 | 13,700 | 5.9 | 3.3 | 50 |
Centre College | 1,156 | 4,112 | 3.6 | 2.8 | 50 |
Swarthmore College | 551 | 4,141 | 7.5 | 1.6 | 49 |
Union College | 403 | 4,953 | 12.3 | 2.7 | 49 |
Macalester College | 5,622 | 6,162 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 49 |
Santa Clara University | 485 | 6,265 | 12.9 | 1.6 | 48 |
Mount Holyoke College | 2,539 | 7,850 | 3.1 | 7 | 48 |
Wheaton College | 36 | 8,064 | 224 | 1.7 | 48 |
Washington and Lee University | 762 | 4,940 | 6.5 | 3.7 | 47 |
Wesleyan University | 70 | 11,200 | 160 | 1.9 | 47 |
Williams College | 2,267 | 8,169 | 3.6 | 2.4 | 46 |
Amherst College | 411 | 6,982 | 17 | 1.6 | 45 |
Colby College | 1,155 | 4,987 | 4.3 | 1.5 | 45 |
Colorado College | 423 | 5,739 | 13.6 | 2 | 45 |
Franklin and Marshall College | 929 | 4,701 | 5.1 | 1.8 | 45 |
Carleton College | 752 | 4,567 | 6.1 | 1 | 44 |
Lafayette College | 865 | 4,225 | 4.9 | 4 | 44 |
Grinnell College | 404 | 3,102 | 7.7 | 0.8 | 44 |
Kenyon College | 938 | 4,328 | 4.6 | 1.1 | 44 |
Scripps College | 2,204 | 2,673 | 1.2 | 3.1 | 44 |
Haverford College | 318 | 3,242 | 10.2 | 2.1 | 43 |
Pomona College | 220 | 4,631 | 21.1 | 1.8 | 42 |
Hamilton College | 2,174 | 6,055 | 2.8 | 2 | 40 |
Oberlin College | 137 | 2,457 | 17.9 | 3.5 | 40 |
Case Western Reserve University | 822 | 3,920 | 4.8 | 0.5 | 40 |
Davidson College | 457 | 3,932 | 8.6 | 1.7 | 38 |
Vassar College | 31 | 3,717 | 119.9 | 0.5 | 37 |
Trinity College | 213 | 2,499 | 11.7 | 0.8 | 37 |
Middlebury College | 105 | 7,340 | 69.9 | 0.5 | 36 |
Harvey Mudd College | 747 | 2,805 | 3.8 | 0.6 | 36 |
DePauw University | 1,011 | 4,832 | 4.8 | 1.2 | 36 |
Reed College | 0 | 1,217 | - | 0.1 | 35 |
Sewanee-University of the South | 139 | 3,067 | 22.1 | 0.9 | 34 |
Cooper Union | 68 | 5,452 | 80.2 | 0.4 | 33 |
University of California, Santa Barbara | 228 | 3,789 | 16.6 | 0.8 | 33 |
Whitman College | 240 | 1,296 | 5.4 | 0.8 | 32 |
United States Coast Guard Academy | 7 | 598 | 85.4 | 1.2 | 23 |
Virginia Military Institute | 53 | 364 | 6.9 | 0.2 | 7 |
Coldlime has produced an interactive version of both and tables.