Hong Kong’s leader John Lee Ka-chiu and his administration launched online accounts a year ago to exploit social media but have barely scratched the surface in using them to tell better Hong Kong stories, communication experts have said.

The experts explained ministers had tended to focus on the work they did or lifted the veil on aspects of their personal lives, but had not done enough creative thinking to further their agenda on policies.

Government figures also did not do much to be aggressive on “selling” Hong Kong, even though that was made a government priority after the post-pandemic reopening of the city, they said.

The personality-heavy content strategy of one minister raised eyebrows and a former senior government aide suggested that taxpayers might prefer to have their money spent on something that focused less on the individual.

Just hours into his new role on July 1 last year, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu promised in his second Facebook post he would strengthen his connection to the public by sharing his everyday work and life on the social media platform.

One year on and more than 270 posts later, Lee’s Facebook page has captured around 40,000 followers, has gathered about 22,600 page likes and amassed more than 530,000 interactions.

Ministers who entered the social media arena around the same time as Lee have gathered varying degrees of attention.

The city’s No 2 official, Chief Secretary Eric Chan Kwok-ki, has about 3,300 followers. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po has around 2,600.

Security minister Chris Tang Ping-keung was a stand-out among the newbies. Tang’s Facebook following, about 30,000 people, with 21,000 page likes, was not far behind Lee’s.

Dr Rose Luqiu Luwei, an associate professor at Baptist University’s department of journalism, said that Tang had benefited from a strategy that used more video and behind-the-scenes content compared with Lee.

Two of Tang’s most popular posts featured selfies at concerts with his wife. Each collected about 8,000 likes.

But a more recent video of Tang to mark the Dragon Boat Festival, which saw him share a rice dumpling with the Security Bureau’s interns, drew scathing comments on online forum LIHKG. One user wrote: “Does he have nothing to do as his news is all about eating and shooting videos”.

Luqiu agreed captivating content could maintain public interest in the top officials’ pages, but felt they should also foster dialogue on social media by providing more personal insights and responding to comments.

But other experts said they did not think social media platforms were a suitable venue for serious policy discussions.

Character building was a typical objective in social media content strategies, communications adviser Elisabeth Wong Kit-wai said.

She explained Tang’s page had managed to convey an image of a tough-minded, but tender-hearted man who lives like regular people.

But she said Lee’s Facebook page read like his work diary to her.

“It’s been a whole year and I still can’t tell what the key message is. The only information I get is that he has a packed schedule and travels a lot,” Wong said.

Light-hearted content did not have to be personal, Julian Law Wing-chung, a former journalist who ran the chief executive election campaign for former financial secretary John Tsang Chun-wah, said.

“[The strategies] that make you like the Hong Kong government or a certain official in the government are distinguishable. For something that involves public money, we might not expect it to focus on a person,” Law, who now runs a firm offering communication services with clients, including the government, explained.

He also cast doubt on the rationale behind officials’ expansion of their presence onto mainland social media platforms that did not have many Hong Kong residents on them.

Lee, Chan and Tang started their accounts on Weibo, a Chinese Twitter-like platform, in the past year. Lee had said he hoped his debut on the service would allow mainlanders to understand the city better and improve cross-border relationships.

Tang last September became the first senior official to open a Xiaohongshu account, popular among young mainlanders for its more photo and video-heavy content.

“When they work with Xiaohongshu, they are not facing Hong Kong people but mainlanders, which of course includes mainland officials,” Law said.

The Security Bureau at present manages six pages across four platforms for itself and Tang. The presence on Weibo and Xiaohongshu is limited to the secretary.

A spokeswoman said the bureau’s “enhanced presence” on mainland platforms would attract tourists and “help attract talent and businesses and strengthen our bond with the Greater Bay Area.”

She added that fostering public interest in the work of the disciplined services through social media was of particular importance against the backdrop of “massive misconceptions” about them.

Public affairs consultant Andy Ho On-tat, who masterminded publicity efforts for ex-city chief Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, said attempts to change the minds of the public through social media would be unlikely to bear fruit as people had already established firm beliefs.

Ho said, in the face of a flurry of foreign government reports that criticised Hong Kong, the administration should reach out to audiences in the West through Twitter and Tik Tok, which is not available in the city, to “tell the Hong Kong story well”.

“It’s not enough to issue a press statement after each of these reports,” Ho maintained. “Cookie cutter statements are fine as a way to declare a stance, but they do nothing to influence the views of others.”

The former government information controller appealed to his former colleagues to mount a challenge to online scepticism about Hong Kong.

“How are we going to counter these messages? Do we know how these people talk about Hong Kong on Tik Tok and Twitter?” he asked.

Wong said, as Lee faced a much less hostile political landscape than his predecessors, it was time he adopted a more aggressive content strategy and elaborated on the “Hong Kong story” he had always wanted to be properly told.

“As a chief executive, what is the Hong Kong story in his eyes? This has been his governance philosophy and his vision as a political leader,” she said.

Human-driven storytelling content can evoke the sentiments of some Hong Kong people and was more share-friendly than what had been uploaded to Lee’s Facebook page in the past year, she argued.

Wong said that promoting growth in Lee’s follower base was vital as the city leader was unable to pay and boost posts on Facebook after he was sanctioned by the US in 2020 for his role in the implementation of the Beijing-imposed national security law.

A broader audience might also bring back dissenting voices and would help officials gauge public opinion, Law, also an aide to former finance chief John Tsang from 2012 to 2016, added.

A spokesman for the Office of the Chief Executive said it was recognised that social media was an effective way to engage the public and assess public feeling on new policies.

“We will keep in view the latest trends of public usage of social media and review the needs to expand our social media network in due course,” the spokesman added.

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3226175/hong-kongs-leaders-and-their-social-media-strategies-one-year-thumbs-or-down-experts-say-they-are?module=lead_hero_story&pgtype=homepage

Category: Hong Kong