Long May She Reign

The Royal Family Goes All Out on Social Media for the Queen’s Birthday

Everyone got a little Twitter happy for Her Majesty’s 91st.
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By Phil Noble - WPA Pool/Getty Images.

Queen Elizabeth II’s birthdays have commanded some giant celebrations in the past. She has two of them, in fact—her actual birthday on April 21, and her official birthday, which is usually celebrated on the second Saturday in June. That way, there will be better weather for her birthday parade, Trooping the Colour. The Queen’s 90th in 2016 was a massive to-do, the various components of which still live on on a special Web site dedicated to the occasion. For her 91st this year, however, things were a bit more scaled back from having horses, actors, dancers, and bands. And the way __her family members wished her well was—as they say—just like us.

This year the royals have opened their eyes to our more modern birthday traditions; we'll never know if they sent emoji-filled texts or goofy celebratory Snaps to the Queen, but they did fill their official social media accounts with good tidings for the longest-reigning monarch in the U.K.

The @RoyalFamily account shared a photo of the Queen at her christening, 91 years ago. It has the hashtags #HappyBirthdayHerMajesty and #Queenat91.

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Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall’s official account got the message about the hashtag—well, at least one of them. It shared a photo of the Queen with a young Charles in 1952, an excellent #flashbackfriday. It's hoped the Queen faved it.

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@KensingtonRoyal, the official account of the younger royals (Prince William, Prince Harry, and the Duchess of Cambridge) went even more modern. It used three hashtags and had some Range Rovers in the accompanying photo.

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Other messages poured in, and they’re incredibly easy to track, thanks to the Queen’s official birthday hashtag. Her Majesty herself sent her first tweet in October 2014, but she has yet to send the official “Thanks for all the birthday love!” message that’s considered proper etiquette in the social-media era.