October 5, 2026 · Blake Mischley
Instagram Releases a Reels Guide & Pew Maps Social Media Usage | Reach Report No. 29
October 5th, 2026 | The Weekly Reach Report | Instagram maps out Reels by length, Carnegie Mellon lands a record $3 billion gift, and National Coffee Day fills campus feeds.
Good morning everyone!
Welcome back to the Reach Report.
October is here, and campus calendars are filling up with homecoming games, family weekends and fall traditions. This week, Pew shared new data on which platforms people actually use, and Carnegie Mellon received the largest individual gift in higher ed history.
Let's dive in!
What’s New In Social Media
Instagram Publishes a New Guide to Reels
Instagram released an updated guide to making Reels as part of its Tips and Tricks series. Most of it is a refresher, but a few points are useful to have in one place. Reels can run anywhere from 3 seconds to 3 minutes, and Instagram breaks that range into three uses. Clips of 3 to 15 seconds work best for transitions, trends and one-liners. The 15 to 60 second range fits tutorials and day-in-the-life videos. Anything from 60 seconds to 3 minutes is meant for longer storytelling and walkthroughs, like a campus tour. Instagram also recommends adding captions even when a Reel already has text overlays, since overlays highlight the moments you pick while captions show everything that's said. Reels now make up more than half of the time people spend on Instagram.
Pew Looks at How People Use & Feel About Social Media
Pew Research Center released a 37-country survey last week on how people view social media's effect on democracy. In the U.S., 64% of adults say social media has been bad for democracy, the same share as in 2022. The report also asked which platforms people use. Facebook is the most used platform among Americans, followed by Instagram and TikTok. Adults ages 18 to 34 are more likely than older groups to use Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and X, while in the U.S. people ages 35 to 49 are the most likely to use Facebook. Americans also use Snapchat more than most countries surveyed, at 26% compared with an 18% median. If you plan content by audience, the age breakdown is worth a look.
What’s New Across Higher Ed
Carnegie Mellon Receives the Largest Individual Gift in Higher Ed History
Ken Griffin, the founder of Citadel, is giving $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University. It's the largest gift an individual has ever made to higher education, passing Michael Bloomberg's $1.8 billion gift to Johns Hopkins in 2018. Of the total, $2 billion will build a new 35-acre campus in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood focused on computer science, AI, robotics and other tech fields. The remaining $1 billion goes to the Pittsburgh campus, split between the School of Computer Science, which will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science, and other university priorities. CMU expects the Miami campus to eventually serve more than 3,500 students with nearly 300 faculty. Construction starts next year, and the first students are expected in 2028.
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 | +0.22% | +0.04% | +0.90% |
| Engagement Rate | 2.6% | 0.2% | 6.5% |
| Posts Made | 4.7 | 6.6 | 2.7 |
Top Growers This Week
The accounts that gained the most followers over the past 7 days, ranked by % follower growth.
| TikTok | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1. @trinitywestern +5.5% +1,096 followers | 1. @brewtonparker +3.5% +308 followers | 1. @unccharlotte +36.5% +1,334 followers |
| 2. @ucsf +4.8% +2,247 followers | 2. @pennstatenewkensington +2.2% +60 followers | 2. @salemstateuniversity +11.3% +430 followers |
| 3. @umkcinkansascity +2.6% +942 followers | 3. @AveMariaSchoolofLaw +2.1% +73 followers | 3. @bucknellu +11.1% +1,200 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. @uofmemphis 1121.0% 3,491,429 engagements | 1. @MountMartyUniversity 2.8% 1,559 engagements | 1. @unccharlotte 290.0% 179,270 engagements |
| 2. @unomaha 457.2% 1,305,828 engagements | 2. @cornerstoneuniversity 1.3% 1,683 engagements | 2. @carleton_u 54.8% 7,136 engagements |
| 3. @byuhawaii 50.4% 163,658 engagements | 3. @juniata 1.3% 2,513 engagements | 3. @bostoncollege 18.6% 52,038 engagements |
Top Instagram Posts This Week by Engagement Rate
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Top Facebook Posts This Week by Engagement Rate
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Top TikTok Posts This Week by Engagement Rate
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Trending Hashtags in Higher Ed
National Coffee Day on September 29 had schools spotlighting their campus cafés and favorite neighborhood coffee shops under both tags, and a day later Canadian campuses shifted to a more reflective tone, marking the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation with Orange Shirt Day gatherings and flag raisings honoring residential school survivors.
| 1. #nationalcoffeeday | ▲ 9,500% |
| 2. #coffee | ▲ 2,900% |
| 3. #nationaldayfortruthandreconciliation | ▲ 1,300% |
Blake’s Bookmarks
A few posts that stopped my scroll this week and why I think they worked.
 | National Coffee DayAs you saw in the hashtags, it was National Coffee Day last week. I thought this question was set up well for engagement, and it gave people a reason to keep the discussion going in the comments. |
Game of TelephoneThis was an entertaining video that leaned into the uniqueness of the student body. They used their global classroom to play a game of telephone, starting with a phrase in one student's language and passing it along. |  |
 | Minion Filter WalkingA funny TikTok trend uses a Minion filter you can control with augmented reality, placing the character from Despicable Me right into your scene. People act as if the Minion is really there and react to it as they walk around. |
What’s New At Reach
Welcoming Jenny Li Fowler As Advisor
We're excited to keep growing our expertise as we continue to focus on building for higher education. Last week, we welcomed Jenny Li Fowler to the MeetYourClass advisory board. Jenny is the director of social media strategy at MIT. She's also the author of Organic Social Media: How to Build Flourishing Online Communities and hosts the podcast Confessions of a Higher Ed Social Media Manager. We're grateful to have her guidance as we continue building Reach.
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.
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