In recent years, some young people have begun to pay attention to health care after their bodies showed a "red light", and have tried to share their health care experience on short video platforms. Some people have also found new directions for entrepreneurship, gaining attention and profits at the same time. How to get further and further on the health track has become a topic they cannot avoid.
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From "crisp youth" to health bloggers, this change in identity is happening to some young people.
Keke works in operations at an Internet company and is also a health blogger. Previously, she was a typical "crippling youth" - because her work required her to sit in front of the computer for a long time, "alarms" were sent out in her cervical spine, lumbar spine and other parts. "For a while, when I went to bed at night, my back hurt so much that I couldn't touch the bed." Science Ke said that she would have health anxiety at this time, so she bought more than a dozen books and shared them while learning about health care. In less than 4 months, she has accumulated 26,000 fans on the short video platform.
There are many health bloggers like Keke on online platforms. After their bodies turned on the "red light", they began to pay attention to health care and share their experiences. Some of them also found new directions for entrepreneurship, gaining attention and profits at the same time.
However, how to go from becoming a monk halfway to going further and further on the health track has become a topic they cannot avoid.
Take the road to health
If you click on Keke’s account homepage on the Xiaohongshu platform, you can see that the content she shares mainly focuses on the two topics of “Huangdi Neijing” and “TCM Health Preservation”. "Basically everyone knows these two IPs, and they will bring a certain amount of traffic."
Among the content she shared, the data on topics such as nourishing qi and blood, losing weight, and becoming beautiful were relatively high. The most popular piece of content is "Traditional Chinese Medicine Weight Loss Knowledge". It currently has 120,000 likes and 100,000 favorites. More than 1,300 netizens have checked in, asked questions, and shared their experiences in the comment area.
In fact, "becoming more beautiful and healthier" is currently the most popular topic in the field of health care on many platforms. Related content often has good traffic, so many health bloggers will export their experience in this direction.
"The 30+ sister who loves health care is counterattacking," is Jiajia's introduction on the platform account. Three years of health care experience has brought about "visible" and "invisible" changes to her. What is visible are the changes in skin color and facial contours. The "invisible" change, in Jiajia's own words, is that "the whole person is more determined."
She started sharing her experiences at the end of September last year and gained more than 2,000 fans in less than half a year. After the comparison photos of her facial condition and body posture were released, many fans felt that she was a "real health blogger".
Xiao Bao, a 24-year-old school student, is a loyal fan of these health bloggers. Influenced by her family and friends, she attaches great importance to health and wellness. She often searches online platforms for content such as Baduanjin, health exercises, and acupoint massage to learn how to improve her mood through diet and how to arrange exercise appropriately. Xiaobao believes that this has helped her learn more health knowledge and develop behavioral habits that can be implemented concretely.
Data provided by Xiaohongshu shows that from November 2022 to June 2023, the number of monthly active medical and health users increased from 84 million to over 140 million. A reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily searched the platform for the keyword "health preservation" and the results showed that there were "14.48 million+" related notes. Two hours later, this number increased to "14.73 million+".
Tang Jiayi's journey as a health blogger is more like a "healing". In 2013, in order to take care of his parents who were paralyzed in bed, he began to learn about traditional Chinese medicine and health care. Later, he tried to share his methods and feelings of caring for patients online to "help as many people as possible." After the video was released, many netizens sent private messages to inquire about the details of care. Tang Jiayi explained "when to give water and when to turn over" based on his own experience.
After working with patients and their families for a long time, Tang Jiayi found that many diseases require continuous treatment and care once they are contracted. In order to "prevent more people from getting sick", he slowly thought about outputting content on disease prevention and health preservation.
He will carefully read every private message in the background, including patients with depression and cancer patients. In the summer of 2022, a fan approached him via private message, seeking ways to relieve physical pain. Later, Tang Jiayi learned that he was a terminal cancer patient. He was only 32 years old at the time and had a "strong desire to survive." In addition to sharing pain relief methods, he also often provides psychological counseling. The fan passed away a year and a half later. This experience also made him realize that "you cannot waste the time in front of you and cherish life."
Content traffic can be monetized
Zhou Bohui started operating a health account in July last year after she suffered from hair loss, yellowing skin, emotional instability and other sub-health conditions during her postpartum recovery period. After slowly seeking medical treatment and recovering, she shared her experience and health care skills on the Internet, which resonated with many netizens.
She basically maintains daily updates, covering aspects such as health exercises, replenishing qi and blood, nourishing the heart, liver, spleen and stomach, etc. Most of the videos are 2 to 3 minutes long. Most of the fans are new mothers, and they usually ask about postpartum care tips. Zhou Bohui said: "Sometimes they come to me not only for physical discomfort, but also for expressing their emotions."
Zhou Bohui revealed that her account on the short video platform has gained over 10,000 followers in one month. The speed and traffic of her followers have exceeded her expectations, and she has also been approached for business cooperation. The initial quotation was mainly from Party A, which was around a thousand yuan. Since then, the business quotation has grown to five figures, and an average of five business orders are received a month.
A room in Zhou Bohui's home was filled with samples sent by the brand. The products covered a wide range of fields, including supplements, shampoos, etc. She said that she is strict in selecting products and will try them out on her own first to check the effect. “There are elderly and children at home, and I am a mother. It covers all ages and needs. The products I find are all big brands. Many products are sent to my home first. Let your family try it out.”
During the Spring Festival in 2024, as one of the dozen health bloggers invited, Zhou Bohui participated in a live broadcast hosted by a video platform. Previously, she rejected many cooperation invitations from MCN companies. In late March this year, a company attracted Zhou Bohui to sign a contract with it on the condition of "not interfering with content and business, and being able to terminate the contract at any time." Next, they will start the live broadcast business. "This is also a development trend, and we will follow the trend." She said that the live broadcast mainly brings people to "eat and supplement", and there will be a part of bringing goods.
Now, Zhou Bohui’s number of fans has reached 270,000. The account has "grown" to this point, and what she values most is innovation. "Everyone is sincere. If you just copy and apply other people's things, it should be others who are popular. How could it be you?"
Since 2020, Tang Jiayi has published more than 550 videos. The most popular one has been liked 50,000 times. The number of fans on a certain short video platform alone has exceeded 250,000. The current account income is "still very considerable." ".
Now, he began to try to plan content selection based on fan needs, seasons, etc. Tang Jiayi feels that his sharing has passed the bottleneck period and he no longer pursues traffic and data. In addition to meeting the needs of merchants, video content also pays more attention to correct guidance. “As long as it can help a certain type of people, even if it is only 5 points Likes are enough.”
For health bloggers, the number of followers and interaction data of their accounts are the reference standards for negotiating prices with business partners. At present, there are still a large number of health bloggers at the bottom of the online platform. They either operate in a "Buddhist style" and are not eager to cash in, or they are cautiously exploring commercialization paths.
Bi Zhihao calls himself a "Buddhist" blogger. The health account he and his wife have jointly operated since September 2023 currently has 14,000 fans. They have not signed a contract with a professional company and need to plan the topic selection, operation and business docking by themselves. There are no rigid update requirements. The income from business business is about 2,000 yuan a month.
In the past two years, Jiajia has obtained certificates related to health managers, hoping to create a differentiated personality. In the future, she plans to delve deeper into the field of health care and create her own health care community. “It’s just that the business model still needs to be refined.”
Keke still focuses on sharing health care content as a side job and interest to fight against the "35-year-old ceiling of the Internet." She is cautious about bringing goods live. On the one hand, she is responsible for her fans, but on the other hand, she currently does not have sufficient ability and time. She said, “If there is professional guidance and cooperation in the future, I would be happy to try to open a store and create a brand.”
How to be scientific and accurate in “health preservation” content
According to the person in charge of Douyin’s life service, people aged 24-40 among Douyin platform users are most concerned about health and wellness-related content. In the first two months of 2024, health and wellness group buying orders increased by 97.76% compared with the same period last year, and the buying population also showed a younger trend, with the highest proportion being between 20 and 30 years old.
"The 'health craze' will bring about the 'industrial craze', which is inevitable." Pan Yue, vice president of the Beijing Health Culture Promotion Association, described the current development of the health and wellness industry as a "blowout". Equipment, healthy living products, etc. are all developing rapidly.”
In the face of the "industry craze" for health care, especially the "popular science craze" for health care on online platforms, some bloggers in the professional field also have their own concerns.
Ye Guancheng is a third-year master's student at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. His team of tutors runs a popular Chinese medicine public account and often publishes some health and wellness knowledge, but the number of reads is usually only a few hundred times.
He found that many professional medical staff actually lack the energy to make online science videos, which require a lot of investment and may not necessarily bring profits quickly. However, there are people who specialize in short video bloggers, and they may be more creative and effective in video production. powerful.
Zhou Min, deputy dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at Beijing Normal University, paid attention to this phenomenon. In her view, professional medical staff, as the "national team", "must not only be professional, but also understand self-media. A discourse system that looks at the level rather than preaching has more penetrating power to break through the circle." She believes that online platforms The emergence of health bloggers has positive significance for the public to improve their awareness of health information and promote healthy behaviors.
At the same time, Zhou Min also discovered that there were some undesirable phenomena such as false propaganda in the sharing process of online health bloggers. Ye Guancheng also noticed this. For example, he gave Angong Wan, a traditional Chinese medicine for emergency use, which is expensive, with one pill costing 700 to 800 yuan. However, in some publicity, there are statements such as "Eating Angong at the beginning of spring" and "Eating Angong during Guyu is better than prescribing medicine". "It is very harmful to promote Angong pills as a health product."
Some consumers expressed their feelings to reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily, “I don’t know if many of the health products I buy online are really effective, and I don’t know if the health tips shared by bloggers are really suitable for my physical condition. .”
In March 2022, the General Office of the State Council issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine", which clearly mentioned the need to "promote and standardize the development of traditional Chinese medicine health care services." Zhou Min suggested that the public should pay attention to screening and filtering health information, "but it is difficult to achieve significant improvement in public media literacy in the short term." Therefore, it is more important for health bloggers to pay attention to the authenticity and accuracy of information sharing, and network platforms must strengthen Review.
Hao Lijun, secretary-general of the Beijing Health Care Association, reminded practitioners in the health care industry, "When we propose a health care method, we should pay attention to science and difference. During the communication process, we must also follow scientific and reasonable principles and avoid exaggeration. or mislead the audience.”
Zhou Bohui told reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that her account currently does not have professional certification. She is learning knowledge about traditional Chinese medicine and is preparing to take the "Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner Certification" exam to obtain professional certification.
Tang Jiayi, who majored in design, chose to study knowledge related to traditional Chinese medicine across majors. He defines himself as a "homework blogger" - "What health knowledge everyone wants to know, I will help you find, check, and search for it. I am also learning and making progress in the process."
(At the request of the interviewee, Keke, Jiajia and Xiaobao are pseudonyms in the article)
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily trainee reporter Xi Congcong Li Sidina reporter Zhang Junbin Source: China Youth Daily
Version 06, April 9, 2024