Your alumni audience is the oldest one your institution talks to, and it did not move platforms when the campus did. Alumni relations social works when the platform strategy follows the graduates.
Medians across 333 tracked alumni Instagram accounts · last 30 days
1.3%
-0.3 pt vs main accountsengagements ÷ followers
2.6
-0.2 posts/wk vs main accountsposts / week
Nostalgia/Throwback
1.5% median ER · 198 posts
+1.1%
on par with main accountsfollowers, last 30 days
Across 310 tracked alumni Instagram accounts, the median engagement rate is 1.3 percent, and across 333 the median cadence is 2.6 posts per week.
Alumni relations accounts post most on Thursdays between 10 AM and 2 PM local time, across 328 tracked accounts.
Across 198 Nostalgia/Throwback posts in the last 30 days, tracked alumni Instagram accounts earn a median engagement rate of 1.5 percent — the highest of any content type.
Across 198 posts in this category, Nostalgia/Throwback posts have a median engagement rate of 1.5 percent.
Across 75 posts in this category, Memes/Comedy posts have a median engagement rate of 1.3 percent.
Across 80 posts in this category, Move In/Move Out posts have a median engagement rate of 1.2 percent.
Among the 2 tracked institutions with Under 1K students, the median follower count is 473.5 followers.
Among the 64 tracked institutions with 1K – 5K students, the median follower count is 2,022.5 followers.
Among the 105 tracked institutions with 5K – 10K students, the median follower count is 3,063 followers.
Among the 74 tracked institutions with 10K – 20K students, the median follower count is 5,966 followers.
Among the 49 tracked institutions with 20K – 30K students, the median follower count is 12,359 followers.
Among the 39 tracked institutions with 30K+ students, the median follower count is 18,053 followers.
Figures cover the last 30 days of posts. Last updated August 21, 2026.
Explore the full Instagram benchmarks →Medians across 41 tracked alumni Facebook accounts · last 30 days
0.4%
+0.2 pt vs main accountsengagements ÷ followers
3.3
+1.9 posts/wk vs main accountsposts / week
Campus Traditions
0.4% median ER · 59 posts
+0.3%
on par with main accountsfollowers, last 30 days
Across 39 tracked alumni Facebook accounts, the median engagement rate is 0.4 percent, and across 41 the median cadence is 3.3 posts per week.
Alumni relations accounts post most on Tuesdays between 10 AM and 2 PM local time, across 39 tracked accounts.
Across 59 Campus Traditions posts in the last 30 days, tracked alumni Facebook accounts earn a median engagement rate of 0.4 percent — the highest of any content type.
Across 59 posts in this category, Campus Traditions posts have a median engagement rate of 0.4 percent.
Across 43 posts in this category, Athletic posts have a median engagement rate of 0.2 percent.
Across 250 posts in this category, Alumni Features posts have a median engagement rate of 0.2 percent.
Among the 7 tracked institutions with 1K – 5K students, the median follower count is 4,718 followers.
Among the 12 tracked institutions with 5K – 10K students, the median follower count is 6,992 followers.
Among the 8 tracked institutions with 10K – 20K students, the median follower count is 26,975.5 followers.
Among the 7 tracked institutions with 20K – 30K students, the median follower count is 13,885 followers.
Among the 7 tracked institutions with 30K+ students, the median follower count is 51,775 followers.
Figures cover the last 30 days of posts. Last updated August 21, 2026.
Explore the full Facebook benchmarks →Alumni relations accounts grow fastest on Instagram — a median +1.1 percent in 30 days across 324 accounts, against +0.3 percent on Facebook.
On Instagram, the median 30-day follower growth across 324 tracked accounts is +1.1 percent.
On Facebook, the median 30-day follower growth across 40 tracked accounts is +0.3 percent.
Across this cohort's tracked accounts, 346 maintain a Facebook presence, 50.4 percent of the cohort.
Across the baseline cohort's tracked accounts, 3,346 maintain a Facebook presence, 41.9 percent of that cohort.
Shares are computed over tracked accounts on every platform, so they describe where these teams maintain accounts rather than how those accounts perform.
The alumni association's and advancement office's accounts — the flagship handle plus regional chapters and affinity groups — speaking to graduates whose class years behave like separate audiences. Success is read in participation: reunion attendance, giving-day donors, volunteers.
Facebook and the newer accounts run side by side in one calendar, giving days and reunion weekends are planned as sequences, and chapter posts queue from volunteer submissions. Advancement approves in the platform; peer data shows where alumni accounts are.
Alumni is one account family inside a portfolio no single office owns, and the cohort it inherits was first courted by the offices running a yield and melt calendar.
Alumni relations and advancement offices plan giving days and reunion cycles in Reach, coordinate chapter and affinity accounts, and compare their platform mix with peers. Detailed accounts follow as institutions are ready to share them.
For alumni it usually does: graduates keep the accounts they made at graduation, and class-year groups on Facebook are often the only place a cohort still gathers. The platform-mix figures above state the population they were counted over.
The main account speaks to whoever is on campus; an alumni account speaks to people who left decades ago and relate through memory, loyalty and money. Modest follower growth is exceptional work if class-year cohorts show up on giving day.
Treat the day as the end of a sequence: volunteer voices, class-year challenges and matched-gift moments are prepared weeks before, so the team publishes rather than produces while the clock runs. Advancement watches the hour-by-hour push without a spreadsheet.
Yes — it is usually why alumni teams consolidate. Chapters and affinity groups run by volunteers submit and schedule inside the central team's calendar, with approvals where the team wants them and no separate login per account.
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.