The university’s largest channel is Facebook and boasts almost 5 million followers across 449 accounts. In 2018, this audience grew 4.9%. Since 2012 the official U of M Facebook page has grown 32%. With all the changes to the algorithm even a brand the size of U of M struggles with reach in this climate and for the first time in 2018 experimented with paid promotion of posts on their main channel along with some of the smaller accounts.

On Instagram the University of Michigan has a million followers across 127 accounts, growing 25% YOY. Part of that growth occurred after researching their audience more deeply, resulting in a move from Snap Chat to Instagram. In 2018, the team leveraged the attention on Instagram to execute timely giveaways, lean into meme culture, and branded versions of viral video trends. One of their most successful posts in 2018 was a giveaway on ‘National Book Lovers Day’ where they gave away four books written by U of M alumni.

U of M has 2,640,144 followers across a staggering 476 accounts on the Twitter platform. In 2018 overall this channel grew 13.8% year over year. In late 2017, as Twitter doubled its character count from 140 to 280, U of M was afforded the ability to tell better stories and took full advantage.

Perhaps the most interesting play from the #UMsocialteam is the creation of playlists on Spotify. ‘Wolverine Workout’ (433 followers), ‘GAMEDAY’ (357 followers), and ‘Dad Rock’ (255 followers don’t boast the numbers of the other channels, instead explore the power of what might be described as sharable audio. In fact, the digital strategy team launched Alexa updates and the “Michigan Minds” podcasts, offering another space in which U of M continues to innovate and explore.