The Federal Council is now on Instagram – and leaving us at a loss

It’s not a cat video: The Federal Council is now also on Instagram. Together with about four million Swiss, the state government is now also present. And as the first hit on the photo and video platform, the generously expanded social media team has put together a video. You can see the magistrates talking on the phone (Maurer), shaking hands (Parmelin, Berset) and, most importantly, walking around (Cassis). A piano jingles and all kinds of strings provide the pathos. ah.

“Warning: This is important,” says all about this 55-second video. “Energy, climate, Europe, health, old age, security – the Federal Council makes decisions every week on these and many other topics that change life in Switzerland,” says the description, pregnant with meaning. Before even a cheeky smiley winks at the readers. “Follow us so you don’t miss anything.”

Only on Instagram for now

The Federal Council justifies the need for the step to post on Instagram, among other things, that “in 2018 more than 80 percent of the governments represented in the UN were on Instagram”. That’s right: The Swiss government is actually referring to a five-year-old study, according to which everyone else was participating at the time. But maybe there was still social media neutrality in Switzerland back then: either on all platforms or none at all – the state government still doesn’t post anything on Facebook. And certainly no cat videos.

But a cat can still be seen in Alain Berset’s welcome post. The Bundesraad SP places in its Insta story a black and white photo of a graying group of men, one of whom seems to jump over a fence with ease. (Colored) meme characters applauding. The unpretentious Friborg native has of course been on Instagram for a long time (respectable 118,000 followers). Colleagues Sommaruga (34,6000 followers), Cassis (16,000 followers) and Parmelin (9,000 followers) also give a glimpse into their working lives (very rarely in more private areas).

What exactly the official Federal Council account wants to do is also not clear from the official media report. “Actual communication must be channel-specific, ie audiovisual, attractive and interactive,” says the Federal Chancellery in the best advertising language. By the way, the target group is “the young people”. It remains to be seen whether they actually want to be informed in a “factual” and “channel appropriate” way. The Federal Council’s snappy video (a reel is absolutely correct, but that’s only mentioned here for “factual” reasons) was played 6,000 times within its first two hours.

Now that may sound like a lot. However, in the world of like-driven social media, these are crumbs at best.

By the way, one of the most successful photos on Instagram is the photo of an egg. The poster’s sole purpose was to see if you could really set a new like record (spoilers: it worked with over 56 million virtual hearts). Pretty sure not “object oriented”, but pretty sure “channel appropriate”. We eagerly look forward to the other click boosters from the federal kitchen.