Social media management for higher education
Reach is a social media management platform for colleges and universities. It runs every account an institution speaks through — main handle, admissions, alumni, the schools — on one calendar, with approvals and medians from comparable institutions.
Main institutional accounts by the numbers
Medians across 2,138 tracked main institutional Instagram accounts · last 30 days
1.6%
engagements ÷ followers
2.7
posts / week
Move In/Move Out
2.0% median ER · 1,781 posts
+1.1%
followers, last 30 days
Across 1,979 tracked main institutional Instagram accounts, the median engagement rate is 1.6 percent, and across 2,138 the median cadence is 2.7 posts per week.
When main institutional accounts post
Peak · Wed 12 PMMain institutional accounts post most on Wednesdays between 10 AM and 2 PM local time, across 2,104 tracked accounts.
What performs best
- 1Move In/Move Out2.0%1,781 posts
- 2Greek Life / Fraternity / Sorority Life1.8%81 posts
- 3Dorm/Housing1.7%387 posts
Across 1,781 Move In/Move Out posts in the last 30 days, tracked main institutional Instagram accounts earn a median engagement rate of 2.0 percent — the highest of any content type.
Across 1,781 posts in this category, Move In/Move Out posts have a median engagement rate of 2.0 percent.
Across 81 posts in this category, Greek Life / Fraternity / Sorority Life posts have a median engagement rate of 1.8 percent.
Across 387 posts in this category, Dorm/Housing posts have a median engagement rate of 1.7 percent.
Followers by school size
- Under 1K3.1K692 schools
- 1K – 5K10.0K939 schools
- 5K – 10K26.1K225 schools
- 10K – 20K53.3K148 schools
- 20K – 30K110.3K67 schools
- 30K+184.6K66 schools
Among the 692 tracked institutions with Under 1K students, the median follower count is 3,147.5 followers.
Among the 939 tracked institutions with 1K – 5K students, the median follower count is 10,037 followers.
Among the 225 tracked institutions with 5K – 10K students, the median follower count is 26,084 followers.
Among the 148 tracked institutions with 10K – 20K students, the median follower count is 53,308.5 followers.
Among the 67 tracked institutions with 20K – 30K students, the median follower count is 110,294 followers.
Among the 66 tracked institutions with 30K+ students, the median follower count is 184,561 followers.
Figures cover the last 30 days of posts. Last updated August 22, 2026.
Explore the full Instagram benchmarks →Medians across 1,131 tracked main institutional Facebook accounts · last 30 days
0.2%
engagements ÷ followers
1.4
posts / week
Move In/Move Out
0.3% median ER · 672 posts
+0.3%
followers, last 30 days
Across 769 tracked main institutional Facebook accounts, the median engagement rate is 0.2 percent, and across 1,131 the median cadence is 1.4 posts per week.
When main institutional accounts post
Peak · Wed 2 PMMain institutional accounts post most on Wednesdays between 11 AM and 3 PM local time, across 793 tracked accounts.
What performs best
- 1Move In/Move Out0.3%672 posts
- 2Orientation0.2%874 posts
- 3Campus Traditions0.2%843 posts
Across 672 Move In/Move Out posts in the last 30 days, tracked main institutional Facebook accounts earn a median engagement rate of 0.3 percent — the highest of any content type.
Across 672 posts in this category, Move In/Move Out posts have a median engagement rate of 0.3 percent.
Across 874 posts in this category, Orientation posts have a median engagement rate of 0.2 percent.
Across 843 posts in this category, Campus Traditions posts have a median engagement rate of 0.2 percent.
Followers by school size
- Under 1K7.8K262 schools
- 1K – 5K20.2K438 schools
- 5K – 10K45.5K192 schools
- 10K – 20K79.4K123 schools
- 20K – 30K134.7K61 schools
- 30K+302.1K55 schools
Among the 262 tracked institutions with Under 1K students, the median follower count is 7,803.5 followers.
Among the 438 tracked institutions with 1K – 5K students, the median follower count is 20,215.5 followers.
Among the 192 tracked institutions with 5K – 10K students, the median follower count is 45,542.5 followers.
Among the 123 tracked institutions with 10K – 20K students, the median follower count is 79,421 followers.
Among the 61 tracked institutions with 20K – 30K students, the median follower count is 134,690 followers.
Among the 55 tracked institutions with 30K+ students, the median follower count is 302,148 followers.
Figures cover the last 30 days of posts. Last updated August 22, 2026.
Explore the full Facebook benchmarks →Medians across 691 tracked main institutional TikTok accounts · last 30 days
2.5%
engagements ÷ followers
0.7
posts / week
Nostalgia/Throwback
2.8% median ER · 82 posts
+1.5%
followers, last 30 days
Across 521 tracked main institutional TikTok accounts, the median engagement rate is 2.5 percent, and across 691 the median cadence is 0.7 posts per week.
When main institutional accounts post
Peak · Thu 3 PMMain institutional accounts post most on Thursdays between 12 and 4 PM local time, across 620 tracked accounts.
What performs best
- 1Nostalgia/Throwback2.8%82 posts
- 2Dorm/Housing2.5%128 posts
- 3Move In/Move Out2.3%305 posts
Across 82 Nostalgia/Throwback posts in the last 30 days, tracked main institutional TikTok accounts earn a median engagement rate of 2.8 percent — the highest of any content type.
Across 82 posts in this category, Nostalgia/Throwback posts have a median engagement rate of 2.8 percent.
Across 128 posts in this category, Dorm/Housing posts have a median engagement rate of 2.5 percent.
Across 305 posts in this category, Move In/Move Out posts have a median engagement rate of 2.3 percent.
Followers by school size
- Under 1K1.1K77 schools
- 1K – 5K2.0K337 schools
- 5K – 10K4.7K111 schools
- 10K – 20K8.4K77 schools
- 20K – 30K23.4K41 schools
- 30K+20.6K48 schools
Among the 77 tracked institutions with Under 1K students, the median follower count is 1,130 followers.
Among the 337 tracked institutions with 1K – 5K students, the median follower count is 2,033 followers.
Among the 111 tracked institutions with 5K – 10K students, the median follower count is 4,652 followers.
Among the 77 tracked institutions with 10K – 20K students, the median follower count is 8,396 followers.
Among the 41 tracked institutions with 20K – 30K students, the median follower count is 23,400 followers.
Among the 48 tracked institutions with 30K+ students, the median follower count is 20,650 followers.
Figures cover the last 30 days of posts. Last updated August 22, 2026.
Explore the full TikTok benchmarks →Follower growth by platform
- Instagram+1.1%1,367 accounts
- Facebook+0.3%817 accounts
- TikTok+1.5%617 accounts
Main institutional accounts grow fastest on TikTok — a median +1.5 percent in 30 days across 617 accounts, against +1.1 percent on Instagram and +0.3 percent on Facebook.
On Instagram, the median 30-day follower growth across 1,367 tracked accounts is +1.1 percent.
On Facebook, the median 30-day follower growth across 817 tracked accounts is +0.3 percent.
On TikTok, the median 30-day follower growth across 617 tracked accounts is +1.5 percent.
Built for your team
By team: admissions runs on deposit deadlines. For alumni relations, Facebook still works. At community colleges one person markets everything. And presidents out-engage everyone.
Admissions
Social media management for admissions teams
Yield and melt campaigns, admitted-student communities and counselor content, benchmarked against admissions accounts.
See benchmarks →
Alumni Relations
Social media management for alumni relations
Giving days, reunions and class-year audiences — with platform-mix data showing where graduates actually are.
See benchmarks →
Community Colleges
Social media management for community colleges
Term-by-term enrollment pushes run by a team of one, compared against public two-year peers.
See benchmarks →
Presidents & Chancellors
Social media management for presidents and chancellors
The smallest audience on campus and the highest engagement — run without putting a named human at risk.
See benchmarks →
Why higher ed social is different
One university handle is read one afternoon by an applicant, a parent, a donor, a professor and a reporter, on a calendar that is the academic year, and repeats. Accounts multiply faster than staff; consumer-brand averages describe none of it.
What Reach does
A shared calendar with approvals for every account in the portfolio, competitor tracking on the institutions you actually compete with, and reporting a cabinet can read. Benchmarks are medians by cohort with a stated sample size beside every figure.
Marketing, communications and enrollment teams at public universities, private colleges and community colleges run their accounts in Reach and see where they stand against peers. The logos below are institutions our team works with.
Frequently asked questions
Running an institution's account portfolio (main handle, admissions, athletics, alumni, schools and programs) as one program: a calendar that follows the academic year, approvals, publishing across platforms, and measurement against comparable institutions. The portfolio is what sets it apart.
Reach tracks thousands of institutional accounts and computes medians across defined cohorts (main institutional, admissions, alumni, community college) over a rolling window of recent posts, stating the sample size behind every figure. Medians, because one viral post skews averages.
Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn and X, for publishing and measurement. The public benchmarks on this page are computed from Instagram, the platform where every tracked cohort carries a sample large enough to report honestly.
General tools publish well and compare badly: their benchmark libraries come from retail, hospitality and consumer brands that run no admissions funnel and answer to no board. Reach measures institutions against institutions and models the portfolio a university actually has.
Ask whether it holds the whole portfolio, including departmental handles nobody chartered, without pricing each as a seat, and whether it compares you against institutions like yours with the sample size shown. Then check its approval path fits aid sign-off.
See where your team stands
Reach measures how higher education social teams actually post, so you can compare your own accounts against the cohorts these figures come from and see the gap in your own numbers.
A team building with higher-ed, for higher-ed
You get more than a platform — you get a team that speaks your language and listens to you.
MeetYourClass team has spent years in enrollment, social media, and data science — so you're never explaining your world to someone who hasn't lived it. Flag something and you're talking to the people who build the product.
From the team trusted by the marketing, social media, and enrollment teams at many of the nation's leading universities:
