Los Angeles Times

BUILDING A FAN BASE ON WEIBO

San Gabriel reaches immigrants on Chinese network

- By Frank Shyong

As California’s immigrant population­s grow, it’s not just neighborho­ods that are seeing demographi­c change — online worlds are growing more diverse as well.

Social networks like Line in Japan, KakaoTalk in South Korea and Chinese networks Weibo and WeChat are popular with Southland immigrants trying to stay in touch with friends and family back home — and agencies and elected officials are increasing­ly opening accounts to improve communicat­ion with their constituen­ts.

Last week the city of San Gabriel became the latest to hop onto the bandwagon, announcing an official Weibo account that would be updated daily. The account, active since May, now has about 1,700 followers, far more fans than the city’s 5-year-old Twitter account, which has about 1,000. The city’s first official post, replete with a clapping emoji, has gotten 19 re-blogs and 32 likes.

“Check out our microblogg­ing account to get the latest news and informatio­n from City Hall!” the update reads in Chinese.

The Alhambra Police Department was the first U.S. agency to join Weibo, in late 2013, and police department­s in Arcadia, San Leandro and Waterloo, Canada, soon followed.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Alhambra Mayor Stephen Sham also have accounts with thousands of followers. And other agencies, including the California Highway Patrol, are experiment­ing with the service to tap a potentiall­y huge Chinese immigrant audience in California.

The service, which works like a

hybrid of Facebook and Twitter, has more than 400,000 users in the state, according to Danica Xu, a staffer at Weibo’s offices in Northern California.

Across the state, Chinese social networks such as Weibo and WeChat and other Chinese-language Web services have mobilized unpreceden­ted immigrant civic engagement.

Chinese social networks were instrument­al in organizing protests to Senate Constituti­onal Amendment 5, which would have allowed voters to decide whether to restore affirmativ­e action to California colleges and universiti­es. The amendment was eventually shelved.

Government Weibo accounts are often the best way to reach a Chinese immigrant population that struggles to navigate life in America, said Walter Yu, a part-time court interprete­r who has helped launch Weibo accounts in Monterey Park, Alhambra and San Gabriel.

It’s not just a language barrier, he said. Chinese immigrants are also trying to understand democratic government­s, which offer more participat­ion than they may be accustomed to.

Disseminat­ing informatio­n on Chinese social media helps present informatio­n not only in the right language but in a context that users can understand, Yu said.

In Alhambra, the result has been a significan­t increase in engagement from the Chinese community. The Police Department saw a 60% increase in the number of service calls requiring Chinese translatio­n after the Weibo account was launched.

Social media users in China have greeted American government Weibo accounts with fascinatio­n — and follows.

Many American agencies and government officials have become minor Chinese social media celebritie­s. More than half of the Alhambra Police Department’s 40,000 followers are overseas, Yu estimates.

The San Leandro Police Department has a whopping 218,000 Weibo followers; the city’s population is 87,000.

Government agencies are trying to communicat­e with Chinese immigrants on other platforms, including WeChat, a mobile-based social network that has about 600 million monthly users — about three times that of Weibo.

But it’s harder to build an audience. WeChat posts are seen only by an account’s followers, while Weibo updates come with a Web address that anyone with an Internet connection can navigate to, Yu said.

Nearly half of San Gabriel’s population is Chinese, and officials say the city’s new Weibo account is part of a larger effort to conduct city business in a language the residents understand.

News conference­s and releases are increasing­ly using Mandarin as well as English.

Officials hope to use Weibo to get the word out about bulky-item pickup policies, explain constructi­on traffic delays and attract immigrants to city-sponsored events such as summer concerts and cultural festivals.

Promoting Chinese tourism is also a major goal, with multiple hotels under constructi­on in the city and an increasing reliance on tourism revenue, said San Gabriel Mayor Jason Pu.

“This is about reaching our Chinese population where they’re already spending time and in a language they’re most comfortabl­e with,” Pu said.

 ?? Lawrence K. Ho Los Angeles Times ?? NEARLY HALF of San Gabriel’s population is Chinese, and officials say the city’s new Weibo account is part of a larger effort to conduct city business in a language the residents understand.
Lawrence K. Ho Los Angeles Times NEARLY HALF of San Gabriel’s population is Chinese, and officials say the city’s new Weibo account is part of a larger effort to conduct city business in a language the residents understand.
 ?? Alexander F. Yuan Associated Press ?? SAN GABRIEL’S Weibo account, active since May, has about 1,700 followers. Its 5-year-old Twitter account, by contrast, has about 1,000. Across the state, Chinese social networks have mobilized civic engagement.
Alexander F. Yuan Associated Press SAN GABRIEL’S Weibo account, active since May, has about 1,700 followers. Its 5-year-old Twitter account, by contrast, has about 1,000. Across the state, Chinese social networks have mobilized civic engagement.

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