You may have read recently that the royal family have opened a Flickr account (as a former student of the British monarchy it did pique my interest). Anyway on the face of it, it does sound pretty interesting with more than 600 photos, ranging from the iconic and familiar to the much more the private and unseen. Clearly, this library will be great for royalists, historians or anyone with even a passing interest in the most famous of British institutions. However, as an exercise in forging a more meaningful connection with the British public (& presumably that’s why they’ve done it), it’s classically “royal,” that is to say, distant, controlled, measured. Not social.
You have to give them credit for trying though. And it’s not their first foray into the social media minefield. The Palace already maintains a twitter profile with over 50,000 followers and it launched a YouTube channel a few years ago. Unsurprisingly though, neither platform is exploited to anywhere near potential. Their YouTube presence is better with reasonably engaging videos and rare footage but crucially all comments are disabled so in that sense there is little human or social about either. They’re publishing platforms, not conversation platforms.
Of course, the Monarchy’s apexial position at the head of British society was not achieved by giving their “subjects” free reign to question and probe. Their position has been maintained by a very delicate and prolonged reframing of its intrinsic purpose – long gone is royal autocracy: philanthropic endeavour, promoting civic pride, charitable championing and statesmanship are now the rules of royal usefulness. Recasting royal utility has in effect necessitated a much more open position vis-à-vis the British public. That said, they’re still not that open!
So while this latest attempt is admirable, in reality, propriety of distance has been built in, thus rendering the whole thing a little bit pointless. If you’re not prepared to lose a little bit of control, you probably shouldn’t be in the social space. If you’re not contributing to a conversation, just shouting about how ace you are, you’re not going to win too many admirers.
John
