Reference News Network, March 20 report: The Reference Think Tank and Shiyanshi Index recently jointly released the "China City Overseas Social Media Influence Index (March 2026)." This index monitored a period from February 1 to 28, 2026, targeting 150 Chinese cities, with data coverage including five overseas social media platforms: Facebook, X Platform, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Among them, TikTok is temporarily excluded from the comprehensive index assessment due to its limited number of accounts.
During this monitoring period, it coincided with China's traditional Spring Festival. In recent years, tourism during the Spring Festival holiday has gradually developed into an important segment of the festival economy with continuous growth potential. More and more Chinese cities have seized the opportunity, continuously optimized tourism infrastructure and service systems, effectively received overseas tourists, and enriched and expanded cultural consumption scenarios and lifestyles during the festival period. At the same time, Chinese cities' overseas social media accounts closely followed the festival node, strengthened the international expression of traditional Chinese culture, and planned series of content around the Spring Festival theme, triggering widespread attention and interaction among overseas audiences.
One, Overall Situation
In terms of comprehensive influence, the cities that performed relatively well in this monitoring period include: Nanjing, Beijing, Chengdu, Sanya, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Foshan, and Suzhou.
During this monitoring period, the overseas social media platform accounts related to Nanjing closely followed the theme of the Year of the Horse Spring Festival, adopting an integrated communication approach combining "online dissemination guidance and offline scene experience," promoting the联动 transmission of Nanjing city image and Spring Festival cultural symbols. The accounts launched new spring-themed activities around major scenic spots in Nanjing, conducting content planning and multi-channel distribution, using visual storytelling and interactive guidance to stimulate the participation enthusiasm of overseas audiences.
On the specific operation level, on the night of February 16, the eve of the Lunar New Year, the Nanjing Facebook account initiated the #ThisIsMyNanjingNewYear topic, setting the tone for the content output during the Spring Festival. Subsequently, the accounts continuously released content about the Spring Festival tourism grandeur and local customs and traditions, showcasing the festival atmosphere through rich visual materials and multidimensional narrative angles. As of the statistical date, the average likes for this content reached over 10,000 times.
On the X platform, Nanjing-related accounts continuously released dynamic content covering commercial complex festival activities and on-site performances at scenic spots, presenting a multidimensional view of the local people's rich cultural life during the Spring Festival. For example, on February 16, the account released a preview of the "Seven Happy Events" activity at Xinjiekou Commercial Complex, focusing on the cultural consumption scenes and holiday activity arrangements of urban shopping centers, providing overseas audiences with a window to observe the festive atmosphere and lifestyle of Chinese cities.
Nanjing Facebook, X Platform Account Screenshot
In terms of comprehensive influence, Chengdu closely followed the Spring Festival theme for planning and dissemination, achieving significant results as well. On the Instagram platform, the Chengdu account "Chengdu China" launched the global celebration event "Chengdu Memories · Panda New Year Greetings," using pandas as cultural symbols and linking representative animal images from six countries—Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, and Russia—as "panda partners." They presented New Year greetings in a festive, everyday-life scenario.
Data shows that by the statistical date, this interactive activity had exceeded 2.3 million views overseas, reaching approximately 700,000 overseas audiences, attracting participation from six countries, more than ten overseas cities, and official institution accounts. The Thai Consulate General in Chengdu officially posted and left a greeting message, while the Sydney Cultural Center, senior officials from the South Korean Tourism Organization, and official accounts from Kuala Lumpur and Chiang Mai participated successively. Additionally, friendly individuals and organizations such as former Australian Consul General in Chengdu, former Deputy Mayor of Montpellier, France, Clare Hart, and the China-Australia Youth Federation, as well as several overseas influencers, joined the interaction, further boosting the topic's popularity, fully demonstrating the effectiveness of Chengdu's strategy in international communication of "seeing the big picture through small details and touching hearts."
Chengdu Instagram Account Screenshot
Two, Overseas Social Media Influence Situations
(1) China City Facebook Influence Index
In February 2026, the cities that performed relatively well in the China City Facebook Influence Index included: Nanjing, Beijing, Wuxi, Shenyang, Sanya, Zhuhai, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Foshan, and Jinan.
During this monitoring period, the Zhuhai Facebook account performed outstandingly, with a significant increase in dissemination data. According to statistics, the total interactions of the account surged to 113,200 times, reflecting the accurate alignment of its content strategy with the needs of overseas audiences.
From the content layout perspective, the Zhuhai Facebook account revolved around the Spring Festival customs and scenic spots of the southern region, narrating with delicate visual presentation and festival scene records, showcasing the unique charm of regional culture. Meanwhile, the account emphasized the diversity of content structure, presenting the rich dimensions of urban life from multiple themes and perspectives, thereby building up the city's image.
On the specific operational level, the Zhuhai account published a post on February 24 about a Sichuan restaurant opening in Zhuhai. The post was accompanied by red-hued Sichuan cuisine pictures, which not only aligned with the red main visual atmosphere of the Spring Festival but also showcased the city's commercial ecology's diversity and vitality from a lifelike, home-cooked perspective. After the post was released, it received widespread attention, with likes reaching 30,000 times as of the statistical date, fully reflecting the Zhuhai account's focus on detail control and emotional integration in content planning, which helps strengthen its open, inclusive, and lively city image.
Zhuhai Facebook Account Screenshot
(2) China City X Platform Influence Index
In February 2026, the cities that performed relatively well in the China City X Platform Influence Index included: Nanjing, Xiamen, Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Sanya, Wuxi, Dongfang, Zhongshan, and Suzhou.
During this monitoring period, the Chongqing X platform account showed remarkable performance, with a significant improvement in dissemination data compared to the previous cycle. From the content perspective, the Chongqing account relied on the unique city topography and modern urban landscape of the mountain city, using visually striking imagery language to shape a city image that combines futuristic elements with regional distinguishability. The content about the mountain city's scenery published on the X platform, characterized by a "science fiction-like" visual trait, attracted widespread attention, not only strengthening the brand identity of the account "iChongqing," but also helping Chongqing enhance its recognition and topic热度 in international communication of urban landscapes.
On the specific operational level, the Chongqing account released a short video on February 21, focusing on a famous artist from Chongqing, highlighting the mountain city's scenery and characteristics during the Spring Festival. This content combined the traffic effect of the celebrity topic with the city's visual symbols, achieving widespread attention in a short period of time.
This case demonstrates that the Chongqing account excels in content planning by combining celebrity influence and city imagery, achieving a soft city image dissemination through lightweight narrative methods, further enhancing overseas audiences' understanding and favorability towards Chongqing's "mountain city" characteristics.
Chongqing X Platform Account Screenshot
(3) China City Instagram Influence Index
In February 2026, the cities that performed relatively well in the China City Instagram Influence Index included: Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu, Changzhou, Xi'an, Nanning, Sanya, Guilin, Harbin, and Zhangjiajie.
During this monitoring period, the Zhangjiajie Instagram account increased its update frequency, publishing a total of 21 pieces of content, with an interaction count of 30,600. As a renowned Chinese scenic area, the Zhangjiajie account broke the traditional narrative model of scenic spot display during the Spring Festival, shifting its lens to the local residents' festival lifestyle, presenting the unique local characteristics and home-cooked New Year customs, thus adding new humanistic warmth and emotional connotations to natural landscapes.
On the specific operational level, the Zhangjiajie account published a photo of a family reunion dinner on February 23. The image showed a simple wooden interior, hanging cured bacon, and a warm, joyful family gathering around a round table, recording the most rustic form of the Spring Festival family reunion dinner in rural China through plain visual language. As of the statistical date, the post received 1,076 likes, reflecting that cultural expressions based on real-life scenarios play an active role in enhancing the friendliness and emotional impact of cross-cultural communication of Chinese cities.
Zhangjiajie Instagram Account Screenshot
During this monitoring period, in addition to Zhangjiajie, Guilin also showed notable performance on the Instagram platform. Data shows that its official Instagram account had a total exposure of 1.83 million times, with an interaction count exceeding 28,000 times, demonstrating good content reach and overseas audience participation efficiency.
On the specific operational level, on February 10, the Guilin account released a short video themed "streets and alleys are filled with the strong atmosphere of the Spring Festival, every corner can feel the New Year atmosphere," effectively integrating daily life scenarios and festive visual elements to present the Spring Festival atmosphere in Guilin. As of the statistical date, the video had over 550,000 views and over 10,000 likes, reflecting that the communication strategy of taking city daily narratives as the entry point and emotional resonance as the conclusion has high acceptance and dissemination power among overseas audiences.
Guilin Instagram Account Screenshot
(4) China City YouTube Influence Index
In February 2026, the cities that performed relatively well in the China City YouTube Influence Index included: Suzhou, Yancheng, Changzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shaoxing, Chongqing, Zhongshan, Chengdu, and Foshan.
During this monitoring period, the Suzhou YouTube account performed outstandingly, achieving 139,900 views with eight video contents, showing its strong momentum and content production efficiency in international communication.
On the specific operational level, on February 14, before the arrival of the Spring Festival, the Suzhou account released a video recording foreign friends experiencing the Spring Festival preparations in Suzhou gardens. The video depicted traditional festive ways such as paper cutting, writing "Fu" characters, and visiting gardens, showcasing the warm moments of foreign friends immersing themselves in traditional Chinese cultural settings through delicate lens language. As of the statistical date, the video had been viewed 24,000 times, indicating that Suzhou's communication strategy of using cultural experiences as a bridge and emotional resonance as the conclusion has achieved practical results in international communication.
Suzhou YouTube Account Screenshot
(5) China City TikTok Influence Index
In February 2026, the cities that performed relatively well in the China City TikTok Influence Index included: Beijing, Sanya, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Wuxi, Tianjin, Zhenjiang, Luoyang, Yancheng, and Zhangjiajie.
During this monitoring period, Luoyang achieved breakthrough results in its TikTok platform communication practice. Data shows that the official account's total viewing count increased to 260,500 times, showing a significant growth trend. Among them, the video released by the Luoyang account on February 28 became the main driving force for the overall increase in dissemination data.
In terms of content dissemination, this video took the process of transforming a piece of ordinary paper into an elegant tea container as the clue, recording the entire process of folding and shaping a regular paper into a refined tea vessel that holds ancient tree black tea. Its communication strategy aligned with the mainstream content trends of current international short video platforms, integrating immersive experiences and handicraft healing content, creating a soothing and healing viewing experience for overseas audiences, effectively lowering the understanding threshold for cross-cultural communication.
From the dissemination effect perspective, after the release of this video, it quickly attracted widespread attention from overseas audiences. As of the statistical date, the video had already reached 2.9 million views, becoming a signature viral content for the Luoyang account's international communication.
Luoyang TikTok Account Screenshot
Three, Research Notes
The "China City Overseas Social Media Influence Index" takes the official accounts of Chinese cities as the evaluation subject of the index, and through the index model calculation, realizes the index score of the city's international communication effectiveness based on the multidimensional dissemination data of these accounts on multiple overseas social media platforms. According to factors such as the global user scale, activity level, and relevance of influence of each platform, the platform weights are dynamically set, and the comprehensive influence index is formed by weighted calculations of each platform's index. The international communication index system algorithm includes both qualitative and quantitative parts. Among them, the quantitative indicators account for 80%, and the qualitative indicators account for 20%.
Research Notes, Chart: Shiyanshi Index
The data acquisition method of this index is: screening the official accounts of Chinese cities that have dissemination behavior on overseas social media platforms, incorporating them into a big data monitoring system, and obtaining the dissemination behavior data of the official account, including but not limited to content creation data (Generate); interaction exchange data (Interactive), including data generated by actions such as sharing, comments, and approvals; user information usage data (Utilize), including data generated by actions such as subscriptions/follows and browsing. The index model design and charting are provided by Shiyanshi Index.
Research Group Members:
Reference Think Tank: Zhang Cheng, Zhang Luyu, Chong Shen, Zhang Weiwei, Li Qian
Shiyanshi Think Tank: Yu Guoming, Liu Zhiming, Liu Yang, Liu Xinxin, Xu Shanshui, Ma Xiaoru
Editor: Li Qian
Original: toutiao.com/article/7619144561218109978/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.