What I've been reading in October

On the journey to creating a considered Instgram for The Independent lifestyle blog (cos I don't do things by halves) I've read a fair few articles on tips and tricks for bringing the aesthetic you have in your head to life! Here is one that really helped me at the beginning of the month.

Taking things further, I discovered the genius of Adobe Lightroom, the editing tool to use if you are not so blessed to have Photoshop at your disposal. Reading about Presets (essentially filters) I created my own to get the perfect tone set for The Independent Lifestyle's instagram feed, which I'm really happy with! Isn't it nice when you can successfully execute your idea? It was 100% frustrating, but powering through, and not giving up has led to some great results. You can get the desktop or phone app version (I got the free phone app) and spent time experimenting. Time taken to research, plan, play around and practise, is well worth it.

Be patient, relax, and take a break when you need to.

The extra tips at the end of the article gave me a good grounding to make the photos look more professional, though obviously I have much to learn.

Finally this article gives you loads of resources on tools to get an Instagram going in full swing. (Way way more than one person could ever need, and it can be quite overwhelming, but I'm saving it to refer back to later should I wish to advance my digital skills, start analysing the data (which I will later than the line) or do something bit special. For now, I've done enough! The article is also helpfully split into analytics, advertising, stories, editing, video, automation, influencer campaign trackers, and even bio links and hashtag helpful apps etc. so you can take things one step at a time (very much advisable). Adobe Lightroom, Planoly and Hootsuite are enough for me for now, and the other bits will come later.

There's also this one with an extensive list of presets (I'd already made mine when I went through it), but maybe you'll find some inspo.

Okay that's probably enough information on digital marketing things i've been reading. Here's a pretty breakdown of fossil fuels, how they are formed and the chemical breakdown of oil.

DOPE magazine was recently brought to my attention. Designed as a way for rough sleepers to get themselves to a better place, it allows vendors to sell issues on the street at £3 per issue. You can see more about it in this interview with the founder.

I discovered Yale Climate Connections which is an awesome site that gives loads of helpful advice for talking about the climate with other people. If you're struggling, this one stood out. Another one from the Greater Good magazine talking about empathy for birds and how that might help us to talk more about climate change! Another resource on climate change communication specifically and improving perceptions on this complex, daunting area, can be found here with 'climate reframe cards', taking known and well versed climate change terms such as 'heat trapping blanket' and 'responsible management' that have often become quite convuluted, and reframing them clearly to communicate factual, scientific information and steering people away from misinformation and fake news! These cards try to fix the great problems caused by the climate deniers and fossil fuel lobbying companies with a vested interest over 30 years to make sure real climate change efforts were made earlier.

The Smithsonian have a site where you can click on an intereactive map to find out about different optimistic work happening around the world to protect and help our oceans. Whoops more maps and more fun! Yale have also got theese 'climate opinion maps' showing off how people in the Americas's have changed their opinions and perceptions on climate change over time. For more on how to answer people's climate change questions, (which can be super difficult at times), then you can go to this awesome doc of FAQs set out by the Fourth National Climate Assessment Report. There's loads of key relevant talking points like the Californian forest fires that have dominated the news this year and more commonly asked questions on the weather and ecology that might catch you on the spot! Big apologies if this seems super dry but it's short - I promise! It's on the UN's sustainable development goals blog, and includes some nice quotes you can memorise and whip out in conversation! Take a look here. I don't mean this to be US heavy, although with the elections such a dominant news story in UK headlines everywhere, I think I can excuse myself. It will be interesting to see Biden progress in the climate change efforts. In the meantime, you can take another interactive look at what is really going on, this time with sea level rise.

Ready for a good news story? Here's one on some amazing restorative coral work in Florida.

Maya Rosén from Sweden wrote up this amazing guide as a resource to share with others concernated about the climate issue, and addresses many points on how to talk to people about flying. What a legend! Thank you Maya! Think that's enough for now. I'm working on making a content schedule to get better at uploading content - so please be patient while I get better at this.