Preliminary Study on Chinese Government Social Media Presence and User Opinions - A Costal Province as the Example

摘要

Social media has been booming in China recent years. Chinese governments at all levels have involved in operations on social media platforms in various degrees. The study used one coastal province as example to conduct a preliminary study of Chinese governments' presence on the dominating Chinese social media platform Weibo (microblog). The level of activities of major government functional departments on Weibo was examined, as well as that of the Weibo accounts opened by government officials. A survey was conducted to collect Chinese Netters' opinions regarding government weibo status and issues. Insights were obtained for the Chinese local governments to improve their social media operations as well as involvement with the Chinese Netters.