It is hard to believe that just over a month ago the college football season kicked off. It already feels like this season is in full swing. Thousands of alumni have trekked across the country to watch their alma maters battle it out against their rivals. Even more have made the journey back to their campus to pack stadiums and to cheer loudly. We know that major football conferences like the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, PAC 12 and SEC score big on the field, but how do these powerhouse programs stack up when it comes to their alumni following on social media?
EverTrue took to alumni Twitter handles, Facebook pages and LinkedIn Groups to find out.
We looked at the number of Twitter followers, Facebook page likes and LinkedIn members for alumni specific accounts for each schools of the major conferences. We weighted the sum of these accounts for each school by dividing by the number of total students enrolled at that institution (in order to give a fair spread). For example, Boston College’s Twitter account for alumni has 7,330 followers, its Facebook Page for alumni has 4,181 Likes and their LinkedIn Group for alumni has 23,965 members. We divided the total following (35,476) by current total enrollment at the school (14,359) to get a following to enrollment ratio of 2.47 (2.47 alumni followers on social media for every student enrolled).
After some research and handy math, we were able to establish a good snapshot of which schools and conferences have the strongest alumni following on social media.
Take these weighted scores, on average, by each conference and you can see that the Big Ten takes the lead in alumni social following, quickly followed by the alumni of the ACC. Move over Alabama and LSU!
THE AVERAGE RATIO OF ALUMNI SOCIAL FOLLOWERS TO ENROLLMENT FOR MAJOR CONFERENCES
Want to take two steps back and see how each school from each conference performed?
Below we ranked each school in each conference, based again, off their individual average alumni social media following divided by enrollment. The order from top to bottom ranks the top performers from each conference.
ACC ALUMNI SOCIAL MEDIA RANKINGS
BIG 12 ALUMNI SOCIAL MEDIA RANKINGS
BIG TEN ALUMNI SOCIAL MEDIA RANKINGS
PAC 12 TEN ALUMNI SOCIAL MEDIA RANKINGS
SEC ALUMNI SOCIAL MEDIA RANKINGS
While not always cheering from the stands, you can be sure to hear many of these alumni rooting for their alma mater on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. By utilizing techniques like Facebook Ads and inviting members to your LinkedIn Group you can expand your reach with these important constituents. Who knows? Maybe those extra cheers from social media will land you the support you need for your next big bowl game!