UW-Madison Twitter account graduates with top honors

UW-Madison tops the list as the best Twitter account in U.S. higher education.

That might sound like a #throwbackthursday reference, but Engagement Labs has once again named @UWMadison as 2016’s top U.S. educational institution when it comes to communicating in 140 characters or less.

“Across the board, UW–Madison scored some of the highest marks when compared to other universities,” says Jessica Dell’Aquila, marketing director for Toronto-based Engagement Labs. “From the numbers on our end, it’s apparent that UW has a great Twitter community.”

Engagement Labs computes its rankings based on 200 metrics that focus on engagement, impact and responsiveness. “On Twitter, UW–Madison ranks first for overall score and boasts the highest number of retweets and favorites per 1,000 fans,” according to the Engagement Labs website.

Following UW–Madison in the top five are Texas A&M, Baylor University, Indiana University and the University of Utah.

It’s not just about getting those retweets and favorites. What UW’s social media managers focus on is starting conversations, building digital communities and simply sharing great content, says John Lucas, executive director of University Communications, which oversees UW–Madison’s social media properties.

“We’re thrilled to continue to be recognized for excellence in social media,” Lucas says. “Beyond our institutional accounts, we have a talented and dedicated group of account managers all across campus.”

“Social media for a university is an amazing way to be able to show your community not only that they can rely on you for news and information, but also that they can engage directly with the university in a more personal way,” Dell’Aquila says.

“It’s important for people to realize that there is somebody on the other end of that screen. If students have questions, comments or concerns, they can go to UW’s social media channels and know that they’ll get a timely response.”

Not to be outdone by Twitter, UW–Madison’s Facebook ranks 4th among U.S. higher education accounts, up from 9th last year. UW’s closest Big Ten rival on Facebook is the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, coming in at 8th place.

UW-Madison is no stranger to high social media rankings in recent years:

• Isthmus named UW–Madison’s Twitter and Instagram accounts as the Madison Favorites of 2015.
• Analytics tool Followerwonk, as reported by Times Higher Education, ranked UW–Madison the second-most influential U.S. university on Twitter in 2014.

To see UW–Madison’s favorite tweets and Instagrams, visit social.wisc.edu.