Popular Posts of Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, TV and Tourism on Foreign Social Media Platforms during the 1st Quarter of 2021

Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, TV and Tourism has further deepened the integration of culture and tourism since 2021, in order to fully showcase the glamor of Hangzhou as a “Cultural Paradise”. In terms of overseas social media marketing, the Bureau explores diverse forms of culture and tourism which manifest Hangzhou’s internationalization, local features and trend of fashion, so as to present the city as a good combination of vitality and diversity. Echoing the theme of the Spring Festival, the Bureau rolled out a “Happy New Year Letter” featuring cultural relics on foreign social media platforms, offered a “trip to seek comfort from pets’ company” and to explore other new niche popular spots, held an interactive comic event themed on Liangzhu Culture, updated the “Museum” section of tourism consulting service, integrated creative events, in-depth content and robot service, to provide its followers with multi-dimensional experience of local tourism in the 1st quarter. Posts with the theme of “Festive Hangzhou” infected international fans and showcased the delighted and joyful faces of the Chinese New Year, as well as the traditional Chinese culture and Hangzhou urban culture to them, through scenic spots decorated with colorful lights, “New Year Cake Festival” and other diverse folk activities, as well as adorable and interesting “new year calls” paid by cultural relics. This series has 7 posts which have received 600,000 impressions and 15,000 engagements on Facebook. The section of “HangzhouInsider” will continue to accompany subscribers when they explore pet café in the city and spend leisure time with adorable pets. The section has received 140,000 impressions and 5,000 engagements, which shows that fans are interested and love in-depth tours. Supported by cultural promotion, robots offering customer service have updated the section of “Museum”, and added the introduction of Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Hangzhou Arts and Crafts Museum and the Crafts Museum. In addition, a mode with interactive multiple-choice questions has been added to the robot customer service program in order to improve the user experience. Fans can explore travel programs that suit themselves according to the results of interactive preference tests provided by robots, which makes it easier to understand Hangzhou. A total of 52 persons have used customer service robots of Hangzhou on Facebook and Twitter this quarter. In early March, the Bureau launched an interactive comic event centered on Liangzhu Culture jointly with experts from Liangzhu Museum, the famous Australian Instagram travel blogger, Tara Whiteman (account: @taramilktea), with millions of followers, and a young production team of creative comics in Hangzhou. The Bureau utilized the influence of the Internet celebrities to connect China with the international community and bring immersive experiences of culture and tourism to its global fans. As of the end of March, it has rolled out 2 episodes of the interactive comics and 3 posts. Tara has released 2 episodes of interactive videos for voting in the form of INS Story, receiving 130,000 impressions and nearly 8,000 engagements in total. They drew the attention of followers via the newest and innovative forms of connectivity. Besides, the Bureau proactively cooperates with brands on overseas social media platforms, and promotes a “City Quiz” event jointly with China Eastern Airlines (CEA). 5 posts are related to the West Lake, Longjing Tea, oil-paper umbrellas and other items of culture and tourism, promoting Hangzhou’s nice scenery and rich culture in an all-rounded manner. The two accounts of “Hangzhou, China” and “China Eastern Airlines” receive over 4 million impressions and nearly 40,000 engagements in total, ranking among the best in CEA’s promotion series of “TravelwithCEAir”.

As of the end of March, the Facebook account of “Hangzhou, China” has attracted nearly 1.07 million followers, and the number has registered a cumulative increase of nearly 30,000 over the previous quarter. The account published 100 posts in total in the 1st quarter of 2021, which received 6 million impressions and nearly 250,000 engagements with an average interactive rate of over 4%. 5 posts on the platform with the best impressions are about the Blooming Plum Flowers on February 7 with more than 214,000 impressions and nearly 160,000 views, Snow on the West Lake on January 31 with over 153,000 impressions and more than 110,000 views, Buddhists at Lingyin Temple on February 8 with over 151,000 impressions and more than 133,000 views, Exploring Xixi National Wetland Park on February 4 with over 111,000 impressions and more than 102,000 views, and A City Building on February 23 with over 109,000 impressions and more than 101,000 views.

As of the end of March, the Twitter account of Hangzhou, @Hangzhou_CHINA, has attracted 108,000 followers, and the number has shown an increase of more than 3,000 over the previous quarter. The account posted 102 times in the 1st quarter of 2021, receiving in total 2.63 million impressions and more than 60,000 engagements. The average interactive rate has reached 2.3%. This quarter, zooming in on domestic and overseas trends and hot topics, we have developed topical content that is close to our fans’ life and maximized the effect of dissemination. The top 5 posts in terms of the number of engagements are the picture of “Stars in the Universe” shared by a fan on January 4 with 6,631 engagements as well as 1,219 likes, comments and retweets, the picture of “Lively City” shared by a fan on January 1 with 3,460 engagements as well as 188 likes, comments and retweets, the picture of “Tea Garden” shared by a fan on March 15 with 2,140 engagements as well as 511 likes, comments and retweets, the picture of “Broken Bridge with Melting Snow” on January 1 with 1,950 engagements as well as 482 likes, comments and retweets, and Celebration of the International Women’s Day on March 8 with 1,331 engagements as well as 228 likes, comments and retweets.

The Instagram account of Hangzhou, @hangzhou_china, has 34,000 followers, showing an increase of 1,579 from the previous quarter. It posted 95 messages in total in the 1st quarter of 2021 and received nearly 56,000 engagements, maintaining stable growth of popularity. Images shared by fans were well received this quarter. Reposting user-generated content not only increased fan interaction, but also indirectly transformed fans into brand spokespersons.

Top 5 posts in terms of engagements are the picture “Canoeing on the Lake” shared by a fan on January 13 with 7,840 engagements and 7,827 likes, the picture “Lively City” shared by a fan on January 1 with 1,611 engagements and 1,595 likes, Meditation at an Ancient Temple on February 17 with 1,470 engagements and 1,449 likes, the picture “Pink Courtyard” shared by a fan on January 23 with 1,430 engagements and 1,411 likes, and the picture “Scripture Library of a Temple” shared by a fan on February 6 with 1,184 engagements and 1,170 likes. The Top 5 mainly come from the section of fans’ pictures, which proves that followers on Instagram like Hangzhou, and are keen to share the beauty and culture of the city.

The account of Hangzhou on Pinterest has nearly 3,000 followers. It posted 90 messages in the 1st quarter of 2021 with a total of 85,974 engagements.

The account of Hangzhou on YouTube has 2,284 followers, and it released 3 videos this quarter, including a 360VR interactive panoramic video of Hangzhou’s winter, and videos of “Aerial Pictures of Tonglu” and “Liangzhu Civilization Animation” the repost of which is authorized by two UGC fans. They were played 231,000 times and the watching time exceeded 338,000 minutes.

With the arrival of spring, Hangzhou has nurtured the “cultural” buds all over its mountains and plains, telling interesting cultural stories to fans around the world!