The Federal Foreign Office has joined Instagram! Effective immediately, users can find out more about German foreign policy with videos and photos on the site.

@auswaertigesamt // www.instagram.com/auswaertigesamt

The Federal Foreign Office invites users to click on this link to experience and comment on foreign policy in pictures and videos, find out about current events and, of course, to ask questions.

With its presence on Instagram, the Federal Foreign Office is expanding its foreign policy dialogue in social media, which is already taking place on Facebook and Twitter.

With glimpses from behind the scenes of diplomacy, snapshots of day-to-day work, appointments and events and also the Foreign Minister’s trips, the Federal Foreign Office’s presence on this photo- and video-sharing service aims to keep users informed, expand the open dialogue on foreign policy issues and open up new perspectives on foreign policy events. The objective is to help the predominantly young and social media‑savvy users of this photo-sharing service to better understand foreign policy and international diplomacy.

The channel will be inaugurated with images of Foreign Minister Steinmeier’s trip to Argentina and Mexico, which is taking place from 1 to 7 June.

Foreign policy 2.0 at the Federal Foreign Office

The Federal Foreign Office has had its own Twitter channel since 2011, when @AuswaertigesAmt was launched into the world of digital diplomacy. An English-language Twitter channel, @GermanyDiplo, and a dedicated Facebook presence have since also joined the fray.

Around 400,000 Twitter users are currently keeping up to date with and discussing German foreign policy via the @AuswaertigesAmt channel. The Twitter channel @GermanyDiplo numbers more than 80,000 followers, while over 140,000 users are now following the Federal Foreign Office on Facebook. This makes the Federal Foreign Office the most popular Federal Ministry on both Twitter and Facebook.

In addition to the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin, more than 110 German missions abroad are active on Facebook. Moreover, around 70 German ambassadors and missions abroad throughout the world have taken up tweeting, and the photo- and video-sharing service Instagram is already being actively used by six German missions abroad. The Federal Foreign Office and Germany’s missions abroad are also active on further social media platforms such as Vine, Flickr and Storify.

Users can also continue to visit the conventional Internet site www.diplo.de, where they can find detailed information about German foreign policy, prepare for their next trip abroad with the travel and security advice and country profiles provided and browse through the extensive archive.

German Missions on web 2.0