October 26, 2026 · Blake Mischley
Instagram Rewards Fresh Reels & The Reach Instagram Rankings Are Here | Reach Report No. 32
October 26th, 2026 | The Weekly Reach Report | Instagram pushes its freshest Reels, the first Reach Rankings crown top college accounts, and Transfer Student Week fills the feed.
Good morning everyone!
Welcome back to the Reach Report.
Halloween lands on Saturday, homecoming season is still in full swing, and November 1 early application deadlines arrive this weekend. On the platform side, Meta says nearly half of the Reels Instagram recommends are less than a day old, and Zuckerberg says Threads has passed X in monthly users. We also just launched the Reach Rankings, and we can’t wait for you to see where your school landed.
Let's dive in!
What’s New In Social Media
Fresh Reels are Winning on Instagram
In Meta’s Q3 earnings call on Oct 21, the company said time spent on Instagram hit an all-time high and that ranking changes lifted Reels watch time by more than 4%. The part higher ed teams should notice is that almost 45% of recommended Reels are now less than a day old. Timely posts tied to game day, homecoming, or this week’s trend have a real advantage.
Threads Keeps Growing
On the same call, Meta said time spent per user on Threads grew more than 20% year over year, and Zuckerberg said Threads has now overtaken X in monthly active users. It will be interesting to see if Threads grows into a channel institutions should consider being on.
What’s New Across Higher Ed
National Student Success Project
Five higher ed associations launched the National Student Success Project on Oct 22. It’s built around five shared commitments to help students succeed during college and after they graduate, and more than 50 colleges and universities signed on as the first participants.
Weekly Higher Ed Social Snapshot
Here's how higher ed accounts performed this past week. Averages across the board, who grew fastest, who got the most engagement, and the posts that pulled the biggest numbers.
Weekly Social Media Benchmark Averages
How the average higher ed account performed over the past 7 days on each platform.
| Metric | TikTok | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| % Follower Growth | +0.20% | +0.05% | +0.41% |
| Engagement Rate | 1.6% | 0.2% | 3.3% |
| Posts Made | 5.9 | 6.6 | 2.6 |
Top Growers This Week
The accounts that gained the most followers over the past 7 days, ranked by % follower growth.
| TikTok | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1. @aamu1875 +5.0% +3,009 followers | 1. @TheCitadel +1.5% +1,321 followers | 1. @PurdueUniversity +6.9% +219 followers |
| 2. @delawarevalleyuniversity +3.0% +320 followers | 2. @Morehouse1867 +1.4% +2,565 followers | 2. @cle_state +5.7% +63 followers |
| 3. @calstatela +2.9% +1,231 followers | 3. @WashU +1.2% +1,738 followers | 3. @worcesterstate +5.5% +101 followers |
Top Engagers This Week
The accounts whose posts from the past 7 days earned the highest average engagement rate — engagements (likes, comments, shares) on a post as a % of followers, averaged across the week’s posts. Minimum 3 posts.
| TikTok | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1. @redeemer_u 233.0% 77,853 engagements | 1. @BethelThreshers 2.8% 767 engagements | 1. @limcollege 24.9% 5,113 engagements |
| 2. @officialbgsu 53.7% 225,826 engagements | 2. @CarletonCollege 1.9% 2,127 engagements | 2. @montclairstateu 22.3% 75,277 engagements |
| 3. @fscjofficial 41.9% 12,857 engagements | 3. @tarletonstate 1.1% 7,105 engagements | 3. @stan_state 21.2% 1,765 engagements |
Top Instagram Posts This Week by Engagement Rate
 |  |  |
Top Facebook Posts This Week by Engagement Rate
 |  |  |
Top TikTok Posts This Week by Engagement Rate
 |  |  |
Trending Hashtags in Higher Ed
National Transfer Student Week took over admissions feeds — schools spotlighted transfer students' journeys and busted common transfer myths, while day-in-the-life videos following students through their majors picked up steam across TikTok and Instagram.
| 1. #nationaltransferstudentweek | ▲ 8,750% |
| 2. #transferstudentweek | ▲ 1,920% |
| 3. #ditl | ▲ 367% |
Blake’s Bookmarks
A few posts that stopped my scroll this week and why I think they worked.
 | Reaction To AgeThis week is full of trends making the rounds on social. This video captures reactions to finding out a classmate is a certain age. It’s usually a funny format, with the reactions getting more outlandish as the age climbs past 100, but this community college used it to do a great job of showcasing acceptance and diversity. |
Change This PhotoA great idea for a carousel. This format has taken many forms, and you can play it funny or serious. Each slide changes one thing about the photo until the last slide delivers the reveal. It’s also a great way to showcase a successful alum. |  |
 | Hit The Road DudeI digest a LOT of higher ed social media content, so when a post makes me laugh, I’m usually a fan. This was a creative take on another topical meme, and it’s the first institution I’ve seen reference it. |
What’s New At Reach
Introducing the Reach Rankings
This week we launched the Reach Rankings (as announced on LinkedIn), ranking college Instagram accounts each semester on growth and engagement against schools their size. We built them to recognize the amazing, hard work of higher ed social media teams, and so their work can inspire others in the field. Congrats to Olin College for leading growth, the University of Florida for leading engagement, and the Merchant Marine Academy for being the only school to make both top 5s. Every one of their accounts is worth a follow, and you can see where your school landed at reach.meetyourclass.com/rankings/instagram.
That's it for this week.
I want to hear what you thought. What was actually useful, what you skipped, what you'd want more of. If there's a section missing, a metric you'd rather see, or a post you think belongs in Blake's Bookmarks, send it over. Just hit reply, I read all of it.
And if something in here was useful, forward it to whoever on your team needs it.
New here? You can try Reach free for 30 days.
Until next time.
Want to chat? Schedule a time on my calendar
Got this forwarded? Subscribe here.
Missed the previous updates? Read them here.
Make sure I’m a contact & move to Primary to keep me out of spam.😄
