黎貝卡:新媒體的交流貨幣是信任
BECKY FANG
It took Becky Fang less than one year to complete her transformation from a journalist to a fashion blogger with nearly a million die-hard fans.“For a 'We-Media'①①We-Media: grassroots media, usually taking place in blogs and social media., blogger, the pressure mainly comes from oneself,”Becky told Nihao.This role change has not only given her a stronger sense of participation, but also a great load of challenges.
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Becky Fang looks like a girl who has stepped out of the screen: she is pretty, petite and energetic.She walks with a vigorous stride, her hair bouncing to the rhythm of her steps.
The girl has a dream job – she buys and blogs for living.When she was receiving the award of “the Most Commercially In fl uential We-Media individual” award, Becky humorously commented: “The greatest thing about my job is that when I shop, I can feel less guilty by thinking that I'm doing this for work.”
Ever since Tencent founded “WeChat of fi cial account②WeChat official accounts: a platform that enables users to push feeds to subscribers, interact with subscribers and provide them with services.” in August 2012, more than 15 million of fi cial or individual accounts have been created.We-Media industry had its glorious moments in its beginning years, before it has started to become swamped.Since 2016, readers have started to get fatigued by the overwhelming wave of We-Media content.The gradual increase of the “unfollow” rate has resulted in the sinking of countless inactive and unpopular We-Media accounts.
In comparison, the almost instant success that“Becky's Fantasy” enjoyed was incredible: her fi rst article on “how to wear scarves” got more than a thousand views in one night; and her third article easily achieved 100,000 hits.
Random as it might seem, the success of Becky Fang is not an accident.Becky has all it takes to become a popular fashion blogger: she has fabulous fashion sense; a solid journalist background ensuring she writes well and has the right connections within the fashion and fi lm industry.
“I decide most of my topics.Sometimes I also get inspiration from the readers and my assistants,” said Becky.She makes full use of the advantages of new media, and actively engages with her readers, who leave comments in the message board below the article.
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It's hard to imagine that this delicate-looking girl could keep on working intensely with less than six hours of sleep every day.
“I need to make sure that 'Becky's Fantasy' produces quality content every day.In order to maintain the frequency, I have to stay up late to write and send out the articles even when I'm on business trips or not feeling well,” said Becky, “The reason why I'm pushing myself so much is that in this internet era, readers fi lter and select interesting content every now and then.It is very easy for them to decide if they want to keep following your content or not.”
For “Becky's Fantasy”, it's at the point now that whatever fashion item it recommended instantly becomes a best-seller on Taobao, China's biggest shopping website.
Becky believes its success is down to her readers' trust.The more trusting they are, the more valuable“Becky's Fantasy” becomes.Becky understands that they trust her not only for her fashion taste, but also for her personality.
Apart from employing a trust-worthy and personal writing tone, Becky also has her own strategies of maintaining their trust.For example, instead of planting advertisements in the articles like typical advertorials do, she separates shoppingexperience-oriented content away from advertisements, so as to avoid letting her readers see advertisements unwillingly.
“Building up the readers' trust takes a long time,”Becky says, “I will never compromise their hardearned trust for commercial bene fi ts.”
While this We-Media platform gives her great in fl uence, it has also placed in front of her many challenges, among which, physical fatigue seems to be the biggest issue.During the entire interview she was full of apologies for not being able to stop yawning.
“I don't see myself as a successful person.I think the most successful people are the ones that can freely spend their own time,” said Becky in deep thought, “every day, before I leave home, I look at my dog and envy him being lazy and not having to work at all.”
Becky thinks that in order to do a good job, one does not only need to be hard-working, but also keep a healthy and balanced life.She decides that when this job becomes more exhausting than pleasurable, she'll choose to give it up.
“I no longer wish to push myself.There are plenty of days to work, and I need to slow down the speed of my life, and do my job with a better mood.”
從曾經(jīng)的新聞“守門(mén)人”,到現(xiàn)在的時(shí)尚“把關(guān)人”,《南都》前首席記者方夷敏搭上了新媒體高速飛馳的列車(chē),成為粉絲逾百萬(wàn)的“導(dǎo)購(gòu)閨蜜”“My(買(mǎi)) God”黎貝卡。
她說(shuō):“自媒體的壓力主要來(lái)自自己?!?/p>
從旁觀者到融入者的視角轉(zhuǎn)變給了她更強(qiáng)的參與感,同時(shí)也擺在她面前更多的挑戰(zhàn)。
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邁著活力的步伐向我走來(lái)的黎貝卡和我預(yù)想中的一模一樣:小巧玲瓏的身板,走起路來(lái)果決自信,整齊的短發(fā)隨著走路的律動(dòng)有節(jié)奏感地飄動(dòng);遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)地,她便綻放出一抹燦爛的笑容,渾身上下散發(fā)出能量與親和力。
黎貝卡的職業(yè)是熱愛(ài)時(shí)尚的女孩子們的夢(mèng)想——時(shí)尚博主。簡(jiǎn)單來(lái)說(shuō),她的工作就是購(gòu)物及分享購(gòu)物心得。在領(lǐng)取新浪頒發(fā)的“最具商業(yè)號(hào)召力大獎(jiǎng)”的時(shí)候,黎貝卡笑侃:“這份工作最棒的地方,就是在買(mǎi)東西的時(shí)候,可以告訴自己這是為了工作?!?/p>
自從2012年8月騰訊開(kāi)放微信公眾平臺(tái)以來(lái),企業(yè)、個(gè)人紛紛轉(zhuǎn)向新媒體市場(chǎng)。然而,在當(dāng)今新媒體遭受的大浪淘沙般的篩選過(guò)程中,逾千萬(wàn)的公眾號(hào)大多因影響甚微而石沉大海。相比之下,黎貝卡創(chuàng)辦的公眾號(hào)“黎貝卡的異想世界”的成功可謂簡(jiǎn)單粗暴到不可思議:她的第一條推送,一篇為朋友寫(xiě)的有關(guān)絲巾系法的文章一夜之間便達(dá)到過(guò)千的閱讀量;并且第三篇文章就成為10萬(wàn)+“爆文”。
實(shí)際上,黎貝卡的成功并非隨機(jī)事件,她擁有一個(gè)時(shí)尚博主走紅所需的所有軟實(shí)力:時(shí)尚嗅覺(jué)、撰文能力、圈內(nèi)人脈、人格魅力等等。
記者出身的她在選題和寫(xiě)稿方面有天然優(yōu)勢(shì)。“選題大部分都是我自己想的,還有一些來(lái)自和助理們的討論,以及讀者的留言咨詢(xún)。”黎貝卡充分利用了新媒體在即時(shí)交流方面的優(yōu)勢(shì),積極反饋?zhàn)x者留言,提高了與粉絲之間平等的交流感。
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你也許很難想象,一個(gè)像黎貝卡一般外表嬌弱的女孩子竟然可以在每天睡眠不足六小時(shí)的情況下頻繁出差還能保證每天發(fā)稿。
“保持推文的水準(zhǔn)很重要。因?yàn)榛ヂ?lián)網(wǎng)時(shí)代的讀者會(huì)時(shí)不時(shí)篩選自己愿意持續(xù)關(guān)注的內(nèi)容,而‘取關(guān)’一個(gè)公眾號(hào)是個(gè)很容易的動(dòng)作。所以,為了保證更新頻率,就算出差碰到時(shí)差,或是身體狀況不好,我也得熬夜做完推送?!?/p>
由于購(gòu)買(mǎi)轉(zhuǎn)化率高,“黎貝卡的異想世界” 備受商家青睞。然而,與當(dāng)下大部分在文中進(jìn)行軟植的公眾號(hào)不一樣,黎貝卡嚴(yán)格區(qū)分頭條分享和廣告推廣,不會(huì)讓讀者在不知情的情況下被動(dòng)看廣告。在廣告的選擇方面,黎貝卡也只挑選自己用過(guò)且真正認(rèn)同的產(chǎn)品,以保證推薦質(zhì)量。
“建立讀者的信任是個(gè)長(zhǎng)期的過(guò)程,”黎貝卡說(shuō)道,“我不會(huì)為了商業(yè)利益損耗讀者的信任。”
從旁觀者到融入者的視角轉(zhuǎn)變給了她更強(qiáng)的參與感,同時(shí)也擺在她面前更多的挑戰(zhàn)。
“體力是我最大的困難,”采訪(fǎng)過(guò)程中,黎貝卡每打一個(gè)哈欠都會(huì)露出甜美的笑容向我道歉,“我不覺(jué)得自己成功。我認(rèn)為能夠自由支配時(shí)間的人才叫成功?!?/p>
“每次出門(mén)看見(jiàn)我家的狗小福,我都很羨慕它能夠懶洋洋地躺著,好幸福?!?/p>
她決定,當(dāng)這份工作給她帶來(lái)的勞累遠(yuǎn)高于它的樂(lè)趣時(shí),她會(huì)選擇放棄?!耙患乱茏龅酶?,需要的不是長(zhǎng)時(shí)間的亢奮,還有工作與生活之間的平衡。”
“我不想再過(guò)度逼自己。來(lái)日方長(zhǎng),我要開(kāi)始放慢節(jié)奏,以更好的心情做更好的分享?!?/p>
THE CURRENCY IN NEW MEDIA IS TRUST
Text & Translation by Madeline Weng Photos by Zeng Jian Illustrations by Haolun Zhang