The Care Revolution network is back on Instagram

How do you build a sustainable social media strategy for an activist network?

We are back! Since mid-September, the Care Revolution network's Instagram account, which had been inactive for some time, has been back up and running. We started our second social media era with a new design, format ideas and an introductory post. Whether and, above all, what this presence should look like was a fundamental decision. After all, we are a decentralised network without spokesperson positions that takes its time to develop positions. With our focus on care, we are critical of capitalism's logic of consumption and acceleration. All of this actually contradicts the usual rules of the game on social networks.

Dependence on social media vs. the opportunities of reach

After Donald Trump's inauguration, Meta, which also owns the Instagram platform, announced a U-turn. Fact checks were to be abolished and replaced by so-called community notes[1]. Many users had already reported that reports of inhumane comments and posts were going nowhere. For a while, user accounts were automatically pre-set so that content from other accounts defined by Meta as "political" was shown less in their own feed. This setting could be deactivated manually, but it left a bad flavour.

Social media platforms and the companies behind them are owned by a few super-rich men. And when they set their political course for their own interests, which they also support with their wealth, users have no choice but to put up with it - or leave. However, the ubiquity of social media makes the latter difficult.

This is the crux of the matter: 14% of adults use social media as their most important source of information, and the figure is even higher among 14-19-year-olds. Even if information is obtained elsewhere, many people who are on social media come into contact with political content there.[2] Not utilising this dynamic for the Care Revolution seems to be wasted potential.

Fully aware of the problem, we decided to revitalise the Instagram account. However, it was clear that the account should complement, not replace, our previous offerings. We will continue to publish articles on the website and send out our monthly newsletter. We also refer to both on Instagram again and again. In this way, we try to make our topics visible to different target groups in different formats. And to know: If we have to say goodbye to Meta completely at some point, we won't disappear from the digital scene altogether.

The attention economy vs. the network structure

The world of social media is fast-moving. Statements, broken down into quote tiles, are what count. Controversial posts are the most popular (in terms of views and interaction rates, the currency on Instagram). You see clickbait (misleading headlines that arouse curiosity) and ragebait (deliberately provocative statements) so often because it works. How representative and, above all, how true the stories are is of secondary importance when it comes to attracting attention. Another successful strategy among organisations and companies is the so-called content faces: individuals who stand in front of the camera, appear approachable, likeable and authentic and, in the best case, tell their own story.

The Care Revolution network does not have a single face to the outside world; we deliberately avoid hierarchies and spokesperson positions. We can only speak for the network as a whole once a position has been confirmed in our internal process. This takes time, so we can hardly make quick statements suitable for social media.

However, there is differentiated, more detailed educational and political content on Instagram. So it's not hopeless if you don't want to get involved in the platform's intended machinery.

We want to stay true to ourselves, even if that means not being the first to cover a topic or not putting a person in front of the camera. But we believe that the Care Revolution is irreplaceable and we fight for things that affect and interest many people. We focus on well thought-out topics, set by the network.

The capacity issue

Now to a tiresome topic that I'm sure everyone who is involved in voluntary work is familiar with. There is always too much to do and always too little capacity. A social media presence that is intended to be effective takes time. Both in terms of strategy planning and execution. Ideally, we should post several times a week, respond quickly to comments and interact. At the same time, we don't want to spend more time on our appearance than on our actual actions.

The work of the network is currently supported by two part-time employees of Solidarisch Sorgen e.V. as part of the cooperation. A small part of this working time is now also spent on social media. In addition, a working group has been set up that all members who want to work on the Instagram presence can join.

We want and need to be active so that the network and our work are visible, but within the framework that is manageable. For us, this currently means that we are working on one post per week.

An interim summary

The first month on Instagram is now over. The big challenge at the moment is to find our community (again) and to make the algorithm understand that the account is active again (and thus to play out our posts). This requires creativity and flexibility.

But it also shows that we can count on the support of our fellow campaigners and become multipliers ourselves, for example by sharing events.

Using the Instagram account will remain a constant learning process (the rules of the game on the platform are also constantly changing). We will also keep evaluating what works and what our priorities are.

Click here for the account - see you in the comments!

Silvia Klein, Social Media AG

[1] https://www.reporter-ohne-grenzen.de/pressemitteilungen/meldung/wie-mark-zuckerberg-mit-seinem-trump-kniefall-dem-journalismus-schadet (last accessed on 14.10.2025)

[2] https://www.bpb.de/themen/medien-journalismus/soziale-medien/545487/individuelle-meinungsbildung-und-aeusserung-auf-sozialen-medien/ (last accessed on 14/10/2025).