黎貝卡：新媒體的交流貨幣是信任

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.”

從曾經的新聞“守門人”，到現在的時尚“把關人”，《南都》前首席記者方夷敏搭上了新媒體高速飛馳的列車，成為粉絲逾百萬的“導購閨蜜”“My（買） God”黎貝卡。

她說：“自媒體的壓力主要來自自己。”

從旁觀者到融入者的視角轉變給了她更強的參與感，同時也擺在她面前更多的挑戰。

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邁著活力的步伐向我走來的黎貝卡和我預想中的一模一樣：小巧玲瓏的身板，走起路來果決自信，整齊的短發隨著走路的律動有節奏感地飄動；遠遠地，她便綻放出一抹燦爛的笑容，渾身上下散發出能量與親和力。

黎貝卡的職業是熱愛時尚的女孩子們的夢想——時尚博主。簡單來說，她的工作就是購物及分享購物心得。在領取新浪頒發的“最具商業號召力大獎”的時候，黎貝卡笑侃：“這份工作最棒的地方，就是在買東西的時候，可以告訴自己這是為了工作。”

自從2012年8月騰訊開放微信公眾平臺以來，企業、個人紛紛轉向新媒體市場。然而，在當今新媒體遭受的大浪淘沙般的篩選過程中，逾千萬的公眾號大多因影響甚微而石沉大海。相比之下，黎貝卡創辦的公眾號“黎貝卡的異想世界”的成功可謂簡單粗暴到不可思議：她的第一條推送，一篇為朋友寫的有關絲巾系法的文章一夜之間便達到過千的閱讀量；并且第三篇文章就成為10萬+“爆文”。

實際上，黎貝卡的成功并非隨機事件，她擁有一個時尚博主走紅所需的所有軟實力：時尚嗅覺、撰文能力、圈內人脈、人格魅力等等。

記者出身的她在選題和寫稿方面有天然優勢。“選題大部分都是我自己想的，還有一些來自和助理們的討論，以及讀者的留言咨詢。”黎貝卡充分利用了新媒體在即時交流方面的優勢，積極反饋讀者留言，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的情況下頻繁出差還能保證每天發稿。

“保持推文的水準很重要。因為互聯網時代的讀者會時不時篩選自己愿意持續關注的內容，而‘取關’一個公眾號是個很容易的動作。所以，為了保證更新頻率，就算出差碰到時差，或是身體狀況不好，我也得熬夜做完推送。”

由于購買轉化率高，“黎貝卡的異想世界” 備受商家青睞。然而，與當下大部分在文中進行軟植的公眾號不一樣，黎貝卡嚴格區分頭條分享和廣告推廣，不會讓讀者在不知情的情況下被動看廣告。在廣告的選擇方面，黎貝卡也只挑選自己用過且真正認同的產品，以保證推薦質量。

“建立讀者的信任是個長期的過程，”黎貝卡說道，“我不會為了商業利益損耗讀者的信任。”

從旁觀者到融入者的視角轉變給了她更強的參與感，同時也擺在她面前更多的挑戰。

“體力是我最大的困難，”采訪過程中，黎貝卡每打一個哈欠都會露出甜美的笑容向我道歉，“我不覺得自己成功。我認為能夠自由支配時間的人才叫成功。”

“每次出門看見我家的狗小福，我都很羨慕它能夠懶洋洋地躺著，好幸福。”

她決定，當這份工作給她帶來的勞累遠高于它的樂趣時，她會選擇放棄。“一件事要能做得更久，需要的不是長時間的亢奮，還有工作與生活之間的平衡。”

“我不想再過度逼自己。來日方長，我要開始放慢節奏，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