The Royal Family’s entry into Instagram was marked in red on the calendar. The Crown’s communications team had been working for months on this much-needed official profile, but they waited for a special date, specifically the tenth anniversary of the proclamation of Felipe VI to make a grand entrance.
In a twist that mixes tradition and modernity, the royal family has decided to open the doors of its world to millions of followers through this popular social platform. A long-awaited and necessary step forward that we at Lecturas.com have carefully analyzed. Pau Sabaté, expert in personal branding and marketing. Why now? What is your goal?
Until recently, the Royal Family remained faithful to its traditional communication channels: the Web, Twitter, YouTube and occasional announcements. However, times have changed and the digital revolution continues. Social networks have become the preferred tool to inform and reach out to the public. directly and without filters. And Don Felipe and Doña Letizia do not want to be left behind in this wave of modernization.
Felipe and Letizia’s goals behind their Instagram debut
As Sabaté points out, Instagram, with its emphasis on images and emotional connection, is the perfect platform for the Royal Family to reach out several key objectives:
- Proximity and accessibility. All members of the royal family can share details about their daily lives and official activities in a closer and more accessible way with unpublished photographs and videos that more closely reflect their work. “This humanizes the monarchy and makes it more tangible to the public“says the expert.
- Transparency and modernity. “Instagram offers the opportunity to show a more authentic and transparent version of real life, moving away from rigid protocol and approaching the freshness and spontaneity that the new generations demand,” Pau Sabaté tells us. Something that will undoubtedly benefit the Institution from now on.
- Reach the youngest. Capturing the attention of the youngest is crucial for the future. Hence, its debut on this platform is also seen as a “strategy to connect with this sector of the population” which, a priori, is much further away from the Crown. Added to this is also the more active presence of Leonor, something vital to sustain the future of the monarchy.
- Control of public image. By managing your own profile, “The Royal House can control the narrative and respond quickly to any comment or situationproactively managing your public image,” the expert tells us. As well as being aware in a matter of seconds of everything that happens on the fashionable social network.
The content, an exclusive album to real life
Instagram offers a wide range of options when it comes to communicating. With images and videos as the main objects, we asked ourselves, what can we expect from the content of the Royal House?
The weight of each publication is carried by all the official acts presided over by Felipe, Letizia, Leonor, Sofía and Doña Sofía. Meetings, awards, state trips, cultural events… Unpublished moments that will bring us closer if possible to the royal family and also give greater visibility to the initiatives and charitable causes that they have supported for years.
Apart from this, it is expected that the kings and their daughters will occasionally open their most intimate photo album. More informal and relaxed images that show us the lesser-known side of the royal family. Who doesn’t want to see what Queen Letizia does on a day off or Don Felipe in a spontaneous moment with his daughters?
Finally, Instagram will act as a speaker to immediately make the necessary news public through official communications. Advertisements that will keep us informed instantly and without distinctions of any kind.
The B-side of Instagram: the challenges of media exposure
But not everything is a bed of roses in the world of social networks… Pau Sabaté warns that “the Royal Family must find the perfect balance between transparency and privacy”sharing enough to keep the public interested without compromising the privacy of its members.” But not only that. They also “must be prepared to handle comments and criticism in real time”, ensuring that their presence on the platform is always positive and constructive, avoiding any kind of controversy in this regard.
After this analysis, our expert endorses the kings’ decision, a debut on Instagram that has been taken as “a bold and necessary move.” And he says, “this decision not only modernizes the image of the monarchy, but also strengthens their connection with society, especially with the youngest”.
