At two o'clock in the night, Wang Hang got up and "clocked in to work". Although there is no overtime pay, or even a basic salary, this point is a critical moment for her to "make a list" for her idol.
The weather in November and February is unpredictable, and the words "low temperature warning" occasionally appear in the weather forecast. Even in the middle of the day, the biting cold did not dissipate. The cold weather makes people feel intimidating, "XX heavy snow" naturally appeared on the hot search on Weibo that day, Wang Hang felt that this was a good opportunity - she took advantage of this hot search topic and posted a Weibo, "life-saving medicine for snow days", come and drink a glass of xx (brand products) endorsed by @xxx (Wang Hang's idol)!
"It didn't take long for me to post it, and when I saw that my Weibo news had exploded, it turned out that I was on the hot search, and the 'big fans' on the homepage were calling on everyone to turn comments and praises, and finally that Weibo received 38,000 views." This screenshot of Weibo reading was kept by Wang Hang in an album called "The Construction Process of the Big House", and the words "A Brick of the Big House" were written in the lower right corner of the picture as a souvenir.
Wang Hang is a member of a popular star data station. "Playing the list" for their favorite stars is their core task.
Many people may know the looming "water army" behind traffic stars, who help traffic stars "buy hot searches". In fact, there is a "mysterious organization" like Wang Hang's, which has no remuneration and depends on the conscious willingness of fans. They have been subsidizing their own energy and money for a long time, forming a tightly structured organization, and they have launched "wars" again and again, just to put their idols in a higher position.
The platform where fans work is called "Data Station", which is an online community built by fans spontaneously. As the name suggests, the daily work of the data station is to do data, including retweeting and commenting on the Weibo posted by celebrities, signing in on the list on platforms other than Weibo, and ranking the music works of celebrities on various music platforms...... Everything that increases the flow of information related to celebrities is the task of the data station. The members of the data station are dedicated to brushing traffic for artists, and the members of the organization are called "data fans", because most of them are women and they are exhausted, so they are nicknamed
"Free Data Female Workers Bald Union"。 Each group will establish group chats on social platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, and QQ to facilitate group owners to contact members and assign data tasks.
There is no reward for this "tough battle", which requires continuous throwing money, and at the same time, it also requires a lot of time and energy. This is undoubtedly hard work, but in order to let the public and major brands discover the "gold" that shines in their hearts, they are the moths that bravely die in the firelight without complaint.
Professional and refined fan circle operation
"Today's overall list is ahead of 0.64 points, but the interactive diving is too serious! Reading, influence, and admiration value, all data cannot be underestimated! The interactive value is temporarily ahead of 17.96 million, and the goal of 20 million + is close at hand, and he said that he would give him a big house, and everyone will hold on in the last two days!" After hearing the group leader, Wang Hang felt like he had been beaten with chicken blood, full of energy. She copied the passage on paper, "Although this passage is very secondary, it is really inspiring. Wang Hang was not the only one who was inspired, many members of the data station did not eat or sleep, and at two or three o'clock in the middle of the night, they were still pulling the gap in the interaction value of the liver "influence", and even opened a voice to cheer each other up.
This is a fan circle ranking activity commonly known as "moving", which was initiated by Sina Weibo. The so-called "moving" refers to the recent debut star moving from the list of less influential rising stars to the regional list with high influence and high attention. The star power list is a product launched by Weibo to reflect the popularity of celebrity Weibo, the list is mainly based on Weibo data, and consists of four regional lists: mainland list, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan list, Asia-Pacific list, Europe and the United States list, and the list of new stars for future stars, as well as the cooperation list. The new stars will compete on the new star list first, and after winning the top 3 of the new star list, they can be entitled to join the list of various regions. The Rising Star score is composed of four items: the number of readers, the number of interactions, the social influence and the admiration value, with the first two accounting for 30% each and the latter two accounting for 20% each.
In the consensus of the "fan circle", the data of an artist refers to the information flow that mentions him on the Internet, and to do data is to create these information flows. Celebrities need to do a lot of data, and improving the scores of the four values of love value, social influence, reading, and interaction through the list is one of them, so that the star can successfully "move".
These rules may seem easy to say, but in practice they are much more complicated.
Wang Hang's idol plans to "move" at the end of September, and their data station began to popularize the importance of "moving" and the rules of the list to fans on Weibo at the beginning of the year, and they also continue to recruit troops, and unite the "big fans" (i.e., opinion leaders in the fan circle) who have many fans and influence in their own fan circle to explain the importance of "moving" over and over again, calling on fans to join the data station and act in unison to improve efficiency. The copywriter recruiting data members is very inflammatory, starting from the importance and necessity of a special event, and linking the future of the star to this event.
"The rhetorical question is the most used!' 'Would you like to see him worse than the others?' 'Would you be happy if he could only lie at home and not work?' 'Don't you understand how much exposure this event means?', a series of questions come over, and emotions are easily incited. Siyu, like Wang Hang, was encouraged by the recruitment copywriter when he moved and joined the data station.
The fan circle calls this kind of copywriting "small composition", in popular terms, it is half honey and half knife, and a slap is returned to a date, "It is very tiring and hard to do data, but idols see it in their eyes, everyone's efforts will not be in vain!" These "little essays" are like a pastor's admonition to believers: The Lord blesses you, but at the same time you need to sacrifice willingly. Fans know that the purpose of this kind of text is to make you have a strong empathy with the star by "selling miserably", so that you can pay for him willingly, which is commonly known as "brainwashing". "It's a bit like a pyramid scheme, it's not glamorous, but it works." Siyu said.
Once you've formed your team, it's time to plunge into a purpose-specific data battle. "At the beginning of the year, the data station has begun to publish a ranking tutorial to warm up, and there are four ways to improve the score. Wang Hang has built a folder called "Big House Construction Process" in his mobile phone, which is the various tutorials she saved during the entire "moving" period and the results of the rankings in different periods.
How to play "fundraising".
Xiao Lei's idol was low in popularity at first, and the scale of the data station was relatively small, at the beginning, even the members paid for the number to do the data, and later because the demand for the number was really too large, the data station would buy the number and distribute it to the members for use. The cost of Xiao Lei's data station is relatively small, and there has been no large-scale fundraising from the outside world, and when he moved, he really had no money, so the members of the station cobbled together some. However, the larger data stations have a large overhead, and will carry out open fundraising, some in the form of "piggy banks" to raise funds directly, and some through the sale of idol merchandise to raise funds. These fundraisers are usually carried out on the "Owhat" app.
"Owhat" is a personalized self-service activity platform for entertainment companies and fan clubs to provide fan services, simply put, it is to provide fans with a platform to carry out fan activities, the main activities include support, selling goods, and collecting money. Taking the "piggy bank" fundraising as an example, fan stations (including data stations) set up a collection service on "Owhat" to sell idol-related virtual products. Fans can choose to buy virtual products at different price points just like buying products on Taobao, and then pay, and the fundraising is complete.
However, fundraising is also risky, especially the fundraising activity of "Creation 101", which was popular on the whole network that year, was exposed by the media that the "fans" of the contestants' support stations disappeared, which affected the normal shooting plan of the show. "After the 'Tron 1' thing came out, our 'piggy bank' was closed, and we generally paid for it at our own expense in the station, and at most we made some hand-drawn, card-related peripherals to sell. Xiao Lei said.
The admiration value refers to the contribution of fans to the stars on the list, and its improvement is actually a contest of money. Weibo launched a virtual flower to give to designated artists, each flower is two yuan, which can increase the admiration value of two people. "To put it bluntly, Weibo is asking fans for money in disguise." Siyu participated in the moving activity in February this year, and she mentioned that she spent almost 4,000 yuan just to buy flowers during the move, which is equivalent to more than two months of living expenses under her normal consumption level, "My dad thought I was cheated out of money." In addition to the virtual "throwing money" method of Weibo Aimu, there is another more common way to support is to buy albums, and fans can buy countless albums to help idols get on the new chart.
Unlike the above two approaches, the number of reads, interactions, and social impact cannot be increased by spending money. "If it's just throwing money, we don't need to exist. Siyu smiled and said, "There are so many rich fans." ”
There are many fan support routines
Siyu opened the idol's Weibo and pointed to the numbers under the Weibo one by one with his index finger. The number of reads is 1 million+, indicating that more than 1 million users have seen this Weibo, and the number of interactions is 808,000, which means that there have been so many forwards, comments on Weibo, liking Weibo, and replying to comments within a month. The composition of social influence is more complex, consisting of two numbers, one is the number of searches for the star on Weibo, and the other is the number of tweets that the user has posted mentioning the star and then read by other users.
"It's impossible to move out just by passers-by. Before "moving", Wang Hang's idol only had a score of "78.41" on the new star list, "If you want to be the first to be on the list, you have to get a total score of 100 to be safe, fans don't make the list for data, how can artists be on the list?" It is mentioned in the tutorial that if fans want to improve these three values of idols, they must use different Weibo accounts to post Weibo content related to the star, or like, forward and comment on the Weibo he once posted, "Each account forwards and comments on the same Weibo several times, and the content of the copy must be different, otherwise it will not be sent, and you must remember to @Artist and bring his super words", Wang Hang said. It takes a lot of people to do data for celebrities, and it also requires enough patience and resilience from those involved.
According to the rules of Weibo, the registration of a Weibo account requires a mobile phone number for real-name authentication, a person cannot have a lot of Weibo accounts, and the accounts used when playing the list are bought, and the data station is generally distributed to the members of the data station after a large number of purchases on Taobao, "You can also buy it yourself, but it is not cost-effective, and you don't know which numbers are easy to be identified as spam by Weibo." "According to Weibo's recommendation mechanism, the likes and comments of spam accounts are not counted in the traffic. In Wang Hang's data station, each member is generally assigned to 20-40 Weibo accounts, "Our station is medium-sized, and the data fans of top traffic stars generally have 80-100 accounts per person", the person holding the number needs to constantly switch accounts to repeat Weibo or retweet and comment on the star's Weibo, and each operation must be done at least 10 times or more. But this is just a routine operation, and it is difficult to make your own idols stand out. "After all, every fan does it. ”
To this end, the data group will produce a variety of "non-outgoing" data tutorials. Wang Hang, who successfully moved, mentioned a method called "hot search" in the tutorial, "It is very useful, if you can rub it, you can have tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of millions of readings at once, but it is also easy to be scolded." "Hot search" is to select some relatively easy entertainment and leisure hot searches, and publish star-related content on the hot search square. Due to the larger traffic of hot search entries and the large number of browsing users, as long as you successfully "rub" on the hot search, you can easily increase the reading volume of the star. If a Weibo gets 50,000 views, it means that the idol star it mentions gets 50,000 views, and the interaction value between the user who posted the Weibo and the idol will also increase. Copywriting can't promote celebrities openly, it needs to be combined with the content of the hot search, write something interesting and pleasing, and finally mention the star, so that netizens who click into the hot search are interested in reading this Weibo, and even click on a clockwork comment, so as to increase the number of readings, interaction value and social influence of the star. @ your own idol under the hot search entry is a typical manifestation of "rubbing hot search".
Painstaking "control and evaluation"
In addition to "hot searches", there is also a term called "control and comment" in the circle. Fans will post some comments promoting positive images, recent new songs or film and television dramas in some Weibo comments about idols, so that when netizens click on the comments, all the relevant information will come into view.
The last week of "moving" is the battle for the leaderboard, and the war has entered the white-hot stage. Every day, every one to two hours, the owners of each data group will take turns to publish the ranking data on the data group and Weibo, if the data increase is not satisfactory, the atmosphere in the group will be very depressing, "everyone is afraid that this day's backwardness will lead to the final failure, so they can only bury their heads in hard work." Wang Hang said. Late every night, after the end of the day's brushing work, the group owner will summarize the day's data increase on Weibo, and then convene a meeting of the group members in the QQ group or WeChat group to formulate a sprint plan for the next day, "It's a bit like a lengthy score analysis meeting after each monthly exam in the third year of high school." ”
After 30 days of struggle, Wang Hang and Siyu's idol became a member of the Asia-Pacific list with the first place in the month. This "move" is the second large-scale battle won by Wang Hang and Siyu's data station after successfully sending idols to debut, but this is not the end, this is just the starting point of the idols born in the draft on the star journey, and this group of "data women" will continue to hold their ground for one battle after another for idols in the future.
Strict community access rulesIn order to maintain the activity of a data station for a long time, we cannot only rely on the efforts of old members, but also need to constantly "change blood". In the early days of its establishment and when it encounters special stages such as "moving", the data station will publish a recruitment announcement through the Weibo account of the data station, and the announcement will be conditional, and interested parties need to send a private message to the account to wait for review. The data station works wholeheartedly for an idol, and it is more strict when recruiting and reviewing, "The reviewer must ensure that you are a 'only fan' (referring to a fan of only one idol), and ensure that you will put the interests of TA first", in addition to reviewing fan attributes, the data station will also determine the applicant's strengths.
Li Xingxing entered the station in the early days of the establishment of the data station, when the star they followed had not yet debuted and was participating in a popular talent show in China. Because debut is very important, it is very strict in the review, more detailed than any subsequent review, Li Xingxing remembers that the reviewer at that time asked her 11 questions, in addition to when to "enter the pit" (start the "powder art" person), whether it is the third year of high school, the third year of junior high school or the postgraduate entrance examination party, good at skills and other basic questions, and also asked whether she knows the relevant cp (screen couple) of the artist, and at the same time needs to check whether her Weibo mentions other contestants in the same period, as well as the amount of Weibo that mentions the idols supported by the station. "The review took about two days, and the members of the review team turned my Weibo upside down, mainly because they were worried that other fans would come in and steal information. ”
A complete data station will generally be divided into a management group, an art group, a copywriting group and a data group, of which the data group has the largest number of people, and will be divided into smaller groups, which will be contacted through WeChat groups, Weibo groups, QQ groups and other group chats, although the other three groups have other responsibilities, but members also need to participate in the daily brushing of data, "I will be assigned to the art group after I know a little video editing, but I also do art occasionally, and the most I do every day is to do data", Li Xingxing said. There is another way of existence of the data station, that is, it exists as an official support committee or a department of the first station of Chinese, which is generally called a data group, and departments other than the data group do not participate in data work. The essence of the two is the same, the members are all specialized in doing data, but the scale is different, so the name is different.
The general structure of the support station
The architecture of the data station is very complete, but the organizational level of the data station is loose, and there is no obvious sense of superiority and superiority, which corresponds to the requirements of the rice circle of non-grade star chasing, "Star chasing is still divided into levels?" "As long as you love the same person, everyone is on an equal footing, and there is no one who is one level higher than whom." ”
Even though the data station does not provide remuneration, there are still many people who apply to join. But the members of the data station are not completely without benefits, and the data station will provide some artists' peripheral products or an opportunity to apply for tickets on the list site as a reward. Once, Wang Sisi successfully applied for a ticket to an offline event with screenshots of the cast and a record of buying endorsements, which was enough for her to stay motivated in the following months. In addition to some small perks, the data station also has other attractions. Wang Hang's data station has a very good atmosphere in the station, and he often organizes a "noodle base" in the same city, a few friends watch movies and go shopping together, and idols will also walk together when they hold concerts, "I am very happy when I meet them, like a meeting with the Revolutionary League, only they can understand my hard work." ”
People who don't chase stars often feel that it's crazy to chase stars and do these things day and night, and Wang Hang's parents and classmates rarely understand her, let alone be on the same front as her. But in Wang Hang's opinion, this is just a little effort she has made for the person she likes. "My idol has Xi been practicing all night or flying for a long time in order to continue to gain the love of fans, and I should pay a little for him, and I can't 'prostitute' idols for nothing. ”
The fans are well organized Secret, capital sit back and enjoy its success
Fan data stations and professional water armies are both by-products of the traffic era, both are committed to improving idol data, and occasionally there will be cooperation, the most critical difference is that professional water armies are taking money to do things, and data stations are "generating electricity with love".
"We are not professional trolls," Li Xingxing sat up straight, "I haven't worked with trolls at my station, but I know that some data stations do." In Siyu's view, hiring a navy is not a glorious thing, "We never hire a navy, if we invite a navy, why do we want to do it?" and the data made by the navy is "too fake", which is easy to be criticized and not recognized by the resource side. Therefore, a very strict organization and operation and a warm community environment have been formed. Everyone is like "one big family" together.
As a fan group, although their data is not objective, in Xiao Lei's view, there is a world of difference between the fan data station and the professional water army, "Fans buy accounts to do data, and one person does the amount of data of three people, which does make the amount of data inflated, but from the perspective of reflecting the will of fans, you can't say that this amount of data is fake." However, the inflated component of buying data or directly hiring a water army to falsify data is even greater, so take the "Wheel Bo" (take turns to Weibo) that retweets and comments on celebrity Weibo. The purpose is to increase the popularity of the Weibo) as an example, a fan manually "rotates", and no matter how high the round is, it can buy hundreds of millions of dollars at once. "Before, I read that the official account said that Yang Yang (the artist's name) had hundreds of millions of retweets on Weibo, so if it was all done by fans, how many people would have to do it, how long would it take, it was too scary. Speaking of this, Xiao Lei couldn't stop shaking his head.
In the more than two years since joining the data station, Siyu knows very well who their work is for. "The resource side will give resources to whoever has high data, endorse products, companies give singles, shoot magazines, TV stations give variety show resources, and so on. Only when the data resume of the star is beautiful enough can the commercial value be maximized. "After the move, my idol announced two endorsements, which is a way to monetize traffic."
In Wang Hang's eyes, traffic monetization is the trend of the times, not only traffic artists need to obtain commercial value from traffic, but also anchors or self-media recognize the view that "traffic is king". The industry's excessive attention to traffic has led to the distortion of the business format, providing the soil for data fraud to survive.
Wang Hang took "moving" as an example. Judging from the introduction of Weibo, the purpose of the star power list is to reflect the true popularity of stars, and the so-called "real" should be the embodiment of the daily search volume of fans and non-fans. So fans set up a data station and used this seemingly crazy organization to defend the interests of their idols, "We can only accompany him before the business becomes better, and we can't do anything else, and we don't have to do it." It would be nice to get the data right and let him make his wishes come true. Wang Hang looked at the smiling boy on the wallpaper on his phone and said.
After the lights went out at night, only Wang Hang's computer was still lit in the dormitory, and she used the time her classmates spent doing homework to make data. Now, she has to use her classmates' break time to catch up on her homework. This winter is extremely cold, Wang Hang's dormitory rarely opens the windows to let in the air, and the air is extremely stuffy, but her bed curtain is still drawn very tightly, so as not to let the light out. Her roommates had misunderstood her, and she had complained about the late-night light and keyboard tapping. But "Wang Hang" did not hesitate.
(Names have been changed)
(Author: Yang Shaoshuai, Master Student, School of Journalism and Media, Shandong Normal University)
Editor's note: Under the domination of capital logic, fan circle culture is often criticized, especially the irrational and extreme star-chasing behavior of some fans, which is easy to cause negative social impacts. Fans are called upon to establish a clear understanding of their star-chasing emotions, and to rationally pursue stars and express their emotions.
Text / Photo: Yang Shaoshuai
Editor-in-charge: Hu Ting
Review: Liu Zhongguo
One Point: Shanshi New Media
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