Chinese cities tap Hong Kong's Facebook know-how to launch global face

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Chengdu is the first Chinese city to launch an official Facebook page. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Published: 2:26pm, 6 Jul 2013Updated: 8:42am, 11 Jul 2013

When Chengdu launched its Facebook page last year - the first Chinese city to build an official presence on the platform banned on the mainland - the provincial capital of Sichuan looked to Hong Kong for help.

Guru Online, a homegrown Hong Kong agency, convinced leaders of the inland city to prioritise social media in their global campaign to draw tourists and investors.

“We told Chengdu, Facebook is the most cost-effective platform because of its traffic and loyal users,” said Alan Yip, chief executive at Guru.

Chengdu was seeking a wider audience even though it was already pulling creative muscles promoting itself. Besides running two official Weibo accounts, the city also managed to invite the crew of Kung Fu Panda 2 - who had not seen a real panda - to visit the city and meet the black-and-white bears in 2008. This was later widely reported by Chinese media. The crew apparently enjoyed their stay so much that they incorporated into the Hollywood blockbuster the city's famous dandan noodles, mapo dofu dish and landmark Qingchen mountain.

But running a Facebook page would be a new challenge. The social media site, Twitter and other popular platforms used worldwide remain banned on mainland China. Very few people inside the city's information office had a Facebook account at the time.

In the months leading up to the city's Facebook launch, officials brainstormed with their Hong Kong partners to plan how to market the city to an international audience - one that knows Chengdu only as the "hometown of pandas".