Queen Elizabeth II turned 91 on Friday and instead of big announcements and fanfare, the Royal communications team appears to have opted for a coordinated, and very modern, social media campaign.
First a rarely seen photo of the Queen's Christening was posted by her official Twitter account with the hashtags #HappyBirthdayHerMajesty and #Queenat91.
Queen Elizabeth II pictured at just one month old at her christening - 91 years ago#HappyBirthdayHerMajesty #Queenat91 pic.twitter.com/QqrgZCQL1U??? The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) April 21, 2017
Within minutes the celebrations were echoed in similar posts by Kensington Palace and Clarence House, and by the Diamond Jubilee Trust shortly after.
Wishing Her Majesty The Queen a very Happy 91st Birthday today. #QueensBirthday #HappyBirthdayHerMajesty #Queenat91 pic.twitter.com/l5qukeZJYj??? Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) April 21, 2017
To mark The Queen's 91st birthday, we are sharing this photo from 1952 of Her Majesty and The Prince of Wales. #HappyBirthdayHerMajesty pic.twitter.com/ednBFygYue??? Clarence House (@ClarenceHouse) April 21, 2017
Soon loyal subjects were in on the wave with more than 12,000 people retweeting each of the official posts and adding the now official hashtags to their own.
Former British prime minister David Cameron tweeted a photo of himself with the birthday lady, while Westminster Abbey used Twitter to invite its followers to listen to the celebratory bells on a Facebook livecast.
The Canadian High Commission in Britain thought the occasion a good opportunity to remind everyone the Queen is theirs too.
Happy Birthday to Her Majesty The Queen, Canada's Head of State, the Queen of Canada #HappyBirthdayHerMajesty #QueensBirthday #Queenat91 pic.twitter.com/cIdxKLmyR6??? CanadianUK (@CanadianUK) April 21, 2017
Even the British Embassy in the United States thought the birthday was a "perfectly good excuse" to share something of their own - her address to the US Congress in 1991.
It worked, having helped spread the HappyBirthdayHerMajesty hashtag beyond the Commonwealth. According to Trendsmap.com, the US accounted for 20 per cent of the social media chatter surrounding the Royal occasion.
#HappyBirthdayHerMajesty! The perfect excuse to share this clip of her address to Congress 26 years ago. pic.twitter.com/iXHDBBCCPk??? British Embassy (@UKinUSA) April 21, 2017
And in keeping with good social media strategy, @RoyalFamily also posted a recently uploaded copy of the Queen's 21st birthday speech.
There were also the usual memes and not-so-complimentary posts, but in keeping with the occasion, we will leave those to the internet.
Some of the Queen's 91-and-not-out statistics
1, the ranking in the list of world's longest-serving current monarchs. She moved to first place after the death of the King of Thailand in 2016.
3, the number of dogs the Queen has now - one corgi, Willow, and two dorgis (Corgi/Dachshund mix breed), Candy and Vulcan.
4 children - The Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex.
8 grandchildren - Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, Prince William and Prince Harry, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, and Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor and Viscount Severn
5 great grandchildren - Isla and Savannah Phillips, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, and Mia Tindall.
13 prime ministers in office since the start of her reign. The first was Winston Churchill (1951-55).
16, the number of countries of which she is monarch - the UK and 15 Commonwealth realms.
16, general elections during the Queen's reign so far. The upcoming June 8 vote will be the 17th since she acceded to the throne.
21, the age when she married the Duke of Edinburgh in November 1947.
22, the age when Princess Elizabeth had her first child, Prince Charles
23, the number of waxworks Madame Tussauds has created of the Queen.
25, the age when she became Queen on February 6 1952.
37, the age when the Queen had her last child, Prince Edward, in 1964
65 years on the throne so far. The Queen reached her Sapphire Jubilee in February 2017.
70 years of marriage the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh are due to celebrate this November - their platinum wedding anniversary.
72 per cent is the proportion of her life that Elizabeth II has been Queen.
601, the number of charities, organisations and military regiments of which the Queen is patron. She handed over 25 patronages last year.
660 investitures - the Queen has personally held more than 660 investitures since the start of her reign.
23,816 days on the throne on April 21 2017, her 91st birthday.
1.45 million - approximate number of people who have attended a garden party at Buckingham Palace or the Palace of Holyroodhouse since 1952.
3.75 million+, the number of items of correspondence the Queen has received during her reign.
??340 million ($578 million) - the Queen's wealth, according to The Sunday Times' Rich List.
2,900,345 - the number of followers of the Queen's official Twitter account at time of writing
Fairfax Media with PA
