黎贝卡：新媒体的交流货币是信任

黎贝卡：新媒体的交流货币是信任

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.”

从曾经的新闻“守门人”，到现在的时尚“把关人”，《南都》前首席记者方夷敏搭上了新媒体高速飞驰的列车，成为粉丝逾百万的“导购闺蜜”“My（买） God”黎贝卡。

她说：“自媒体的压力主要来自自己。”

从旁观者到融入者的视角转变给了她更强的参与感，同时也摆在她面前更多的挑战。

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迈着活力的步伐向我走来的黎贝卡和我预想中的一模一样：小巧玲珑的身板，走起路来果决自信，整齐的短发随着走路的律动有节奏感地飘动；远远地，她便绽放出一抹灿烂的笑容，浑身上下散发出能量与亲和力。

黎贝卡的职业是热爱时尚的女孩子们的梦想——时尚博主。简单来说，她的工作就是购物及分享购物心得。在领取新浪颁发的“最具商业号召力大奖”的时候，黎贝卡笑侃：“这份工作最棒的地方，就是在买东西的时候，可以告诉自己这是为了工作。”

自从2012年8月腾讯开放微信公众平台以来，企业、个人纷纷转向新媒体市场。然而，在当今新媒体遭受的大浪淘沙般的筛选过程中，逾千万的公众号大多因影响甚微而石沉大海。相比之下，黎贝卡创办的公众号“黎贝卡的异想世界”的成功可谓简单粗暴到不可思议：她的第一条推送，一篇为朋友写的有关丝巾系法的文章一夜之间便达到过千的阅读量；并且第三篇文章就成为10万+“爆文”。

实际上，黎贝卡的成功并非随机事件，她拥有一个时尚博主走红所需的所有软实力：时尚嗅觉、撰文能力、圈内人脉、人格魅力等等。

记者出身的她在选题和写稿方面有天然优势。“选题大部分都是我自己想的，还有一些来自和助理们的讨论，以及读者的留言咨询。”黎贝卡充分利用了新媒体在即时交流方面的优势，积极反馈读者留言，提高了与粉丝之间平等的交流感。

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你也许很难想象，一个像黎贝卡一般外表娇弱的女孩子竟然可以在每天睡眠不足六小时的情况下频繁出差还能保证每天发稿。

“保持推文的水准很重要。因为互联网时代的读者会时不时筛选自己愿意持续关注的内容，而‘取关’一个公众号是个很容易的动作。所以，为了保证更新频率，就算出差碰到时差，或是身体状况不好，我也得熬夜做完推送。”

由于购买转化率高，“黎贝卡的异想世界” 备受商家青睐。然而，与当下大部分在文中进行软植的公众号不一样，黎贝卡严格区分头条分享和广告推广，不会让读者在不知情的情况下被动看广告。在广告的选择方面，黎贝卡也只挑选自己用过且真正认同的产品，以保证推荐质量。

“建立读者的信任是个长期的过程，”黎贝卡说道，“我不会为了商业利益损耗读者的信任。”

从旁观者到融入者的视角转变给了她更强的参与感，同时也摆在她面前更多的挑战。

“体力是我最大的困难，”采访过程中，黎贝卡每打一个哈欠都会露出甜美的笑容向我道歉，“我不觉得自己成功。我认为能够自由支配时间的人才叫成功。”

“每次出门看见我家的狗小福，我都很羡慕它能够懒洋洋地躺着，好幸福。”

她决定，当这份工作给她带来的劳累远高于它的乐趣时，她会选择放弃。“一件事要能做得更久，需要的不是长时间的亢奋，还有工作与生活之间的平衡。”

“我不想再过度逼自己。来日方长，我要开始放慢节奏，以更好的心情做更好的分享。”

THE CURRENCY IN NEW MEDIA IS TRUST

Text & Translation by Madeline Weng Photos by Zeng Jian Illustrations by Haolun Zhang