“The way I see it, we get to live on this beautiful planet for free and looking after our home is like paying rent. If we want to enjoy the fruits of our home, the sunrises and sunsets, the forests and mountains, the oceans and beaches; taking care of it is the least we can do. This is your hub of educational tips, sustainable swaps and planet friendly alternatives. Join me on my journey to living a little more consciously.”
So begins the “Sustainability” section of Zanna Van Dijk’s blog. Her website includes other written content with various themes including lifestyle, fitness, food, and travel, but her posts on sustainability stand out due to their more persuasive purpose— They seek to motivate and persuade readers to take action and change their habits in order to live a more conscious and sustainable life that will help the future of the planet.
Her most recent post concerning this topic is titled “Veganuary Is Over, What’s Next? What To Do After Veganuary.” In this article, Zanna lists her top seven tips on eating a more plant-based diet, something she’s very passionate about because it significantly helps reduce the polluting effects of factory farms and is overall a more ethical approach to eating. She also runs a “What I Eat in a Day” series on her YouTube channel, in which she shows her viewers all the vegan meals she makes for herself in a day, and she shares recipes on her blog and her Instagram.
Other posts include “Eco-Friendly Handbag Essentials,” “How To Travel More Responsibly, Ethically, and Sustainably,” “10 Sustainable Swaps To Fight Ocean Plastic,” and “Sustainable Gift Ideas and Christmas Tips.” With a long-established social media presence, positions as an ambassador for Vivo Life, and co-creator of a sustainable swim-wear brand, Zanna has gathered extensive information on how to have a positive impact on the planet and make more eco-conscious choices.
One strategy Zanna uses to persuade and motivate her readers is keeping things simple. Most of her posts on sustainability provide short bulleted lists of the actions she urges us to take. The main points are typically bolded, or otherwise made to stand out from the rest of the text, and are followed with a short paragraph of elaboration. This makes her posts pleasing to look at, so that her audience is more likely to read through the whole post and thereby get all the information she wants them to have. Plus, her tips are usually very easy and simple to implement and often don’t require any unfeasible resources to accomplish, such as adding a reusable straw to your handbag essentials or eating and shopping local when traveling.
On top of this, Zanna has built significant credibility due to her heavy involvement in sustainable brands and practices, as mentioned above. This helps readers trust the information she shares with us and her authority on the subject. Her posts also show how much thought and effort she puts into each one, and they tend to start with a catchy intro that engages the reader and then stay focused throughout. She appeals to those who are interested in learning more about what they can do to make a difference in the current climate crisis, and I imagine many of her readers seek her guidance, as they may be at a loss for how to help or simply paralyzed by eco-anxiety. Zanna’s positivity and easy-to-follow steps along with clear and focused information makes her readers feel a sense of hope and leaves them with a sense of purpose.
I love how you chose to incorporate a quote from the blog to start off your post. It really helped me to see an example from the blog and then read your explanations as to why you chose it. It helped make your ideas more credible and provided room for more understanding. I also think it was an excellent choice to include pictures of Zanna so that readers can see, first hand, who you are referring to. I had no idea she has a YouTube channel, and I am very curious to check her work out.
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