Novice makes dull municipal blog lively hit
Source: Xinhua |
October 15, 2012, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ZHAO Yihan had no idea what to write when he was assigned to run the microblog of the municipal government of Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, in June last year.
Although the young civil servant had a personal microblog account, it was inactive and he did not feel particularly enthusiastic about microblogging, which had just started to take off in China.
Government agencies rushed to open their own microblogs, but most of their posts were criticized for being out-of-touch and stiff. Zhao decided to use his new post as an opportunity to change that perception, using a new writing style that resulted in unexpected popularity.
The "Voice of Nanjing," the microblog of Nanjing government, was launched in April 2011 on Sina Weibo, China's most popular microblogging platform.
The blog had just 114,000 followers when Zhao stepped in last June. Today, it has nearly 1.9 million.
The secret to Zhao's success was simple. Instead of posting dry official statements and boring statistics, he took it upon himself to write about interesting and offbeat topics.
For his first post, Zhao created a personal ranking of the city's cuisine. To his surprise, the post was forwarded by 500 other microbloggers within hours.
Zhao was encouraged to give the microblog even more personality. He elected to create a fictional female character named Xiaobu (a play on the blog's Chinese name, nanjingfabu) to give the blog a voice, as he believes that women are naturally better at communicating.
"I thought she should have emotions, hobbies and her own character," Zhao said, adding that the female "identity" made it easier to communicate with the blog's followers.
Zhao then began to attribute the blog's entries to the new persona, interacting with followers and occasionally poking fun at them.
The fresh and lively style of Xiaobu has earned myriad diehard fans. However, Zhao has also used other methods to gain more followers, such as posting messages at certain times of the day.
"At 5pm or 10pm, people are prone to be hungry, so I'll write some posts about dishes that I think are delicious. A lot of folks are online around 8 or 9pm, so I write interesting news posts for them to read and think about," Zhao said.
Zhao's work has given him a chance to reflect, as he often uses experiences drawn from his life in the city to inspire his writing. He works with another three staff members, including executive editor Huang Weiqing, a man in his 30s, and also two young interns.
Although the young civil servant had a personal microblog account, it was inactive and he did not feel particularly enthusiastic about microblogging, which had just started to take off in China.
Government agencies rushed to open their own microblogs, but most of their posts were criticized for being out-of-touch and stiff. Zhao decided to use his new post as an opportunity to change that perception, using a new writing style that resulted in unexpected popularity.
The "Voice of Nanjing," the microblog of Nanjing government, was launched in April 2011 on Sina Weibo, China's most popular microblogging platform.
The blog had just 114,000 followers when Zhao stepped in last June. Today, it has nearly 1.9 million.
The secret to Zhao's success was simple. Instead of posting dry official statements and boring statistics, he took it upon himself to write about interesting and offbeat topics.
For his first post, Zhao created a personal ranking of the city's cuisine. To his surprise, the post was forwarded by 500 other microbloggers within hours.
Zhao was encouraged to give the microblog even more personality. He elected to create a fictional female character named Xiaobu (a play on the blog's Chinese name, nanjingfabu) to give the blog a voice, as he believes that women are naturally better at communicating.
"I thought she should have emotions, hobbies and her own character," Zhao said, adding that the female "identity" made it easier to communicate with the blog's followers.
Zhao then began to attribute the blog's entries to the new persona, interacting with followers and occasionally poking fun at them.
The fresh and lively style of Xiaobu has earned myriad diehard fans. However, Zhao has also used other methods to gain more followers, such as posting messages at certain times of the day.
"At 5pm or 10pm, people are prone to be hungry, so I'll write some posts about dishes that I think are delicious. A lot of folks are online around 8 or 9pm, so I write interesting news posts for them to read and think about," Zhao said.
Zhao's work has given him a chance to reflect, as he often uses experiences drawn from his life in the city to inspire his writing. He works with another three staff members, including executive editor Huang Weiqing, a man in his 30s, and also two young interns.
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