The latter instead are directly available on the WeChat application which has accumulated more than 1.2 billion users 6 and thus able to reach a considerable proportion of Chinese citizens. However, the latter need to be downloaded and installed to mobile devices (Eom & Kim, 2014). Government WeChat official accounts support convenient access to public services anywhere anytime in the same way as government mobile applications do. Differently, the governments of most developed countries are relying on portal websites as well as mobile applications for the same purpose (Okunola, Rowley, & Johnson, 2017 Sharma, Al-Badi, Rana, & Al-Azizi, 2018). Many agencies, such as social security, transportation, and taxation, have adopted service accounts to deliver public services online.
5Ĭhinese government agencies have started to appear on WeChat Official Accounts Platform since 2011. The most influential WeChat official accounts mainly fall into such domains as media, recreation, lifestyle, and government. By the end of 2017, the total number of WeChat official accounts has exceeded 10 million, including 3.5 million active accounts with 797 million monthly active followers 3, 4 Top account rankings have been created based on their operation and usage and are being updated on a daily basis. The latter features stronger interactivity that helps enterprises and organizations enhance their customer management abilities, resembling mobile applications to a great extent 1, 2 Users are allowed to visit and/or follow WeChat official accounts by logging into their personal accounts on WeChat ( ), a messaging and calling application. The former is similar to online media, sending group messages to followers on a regular basis. Subscription accounts and service accounts, respectively, focus on publishing information and providing services. WeChat Official Accounts Platform ( ) is a popular type of social media in China which enables individuals, enterprises, and organizations to reach target audiences through their official accounts.
#Wechat official account management how to
The findings can inform government WeChat official accounts of how to improve service quality and user experience. This study not only enriches the knowledge about social media use in the Chinese government for public service delivery, but also introduces innovative methods to generate new research insights.
Deficiencies in information architecture, operation strategy, and interaction design of the account were identified in the complementary studies. A 2-month server log file containing 42,188,760 clickstream records was obtained from an active government WeChat official account and analyzed at the movement level, which found that the account was mainly used as a lookup tool with most services underutilized and its home portals failed to support effective wayfinding to needed services. While previous studies depended heavily on the expert-oriented approach to evaluate the accounts, this paper presents a user-centered study based on a mixed methods research design in which an unobtrusive clickstream data analysis was complemented by a card sorting study, stakeholder interviews, and a focus group.
WeChat official accounts have been increasingly adopted by Chinese government agencies to deliver public services, in response to the “Internet + Public Service” reformation.
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