Royals on social media, week ending June 14th 2014

Here's what Europe's royal houses have posted on social media in the week ending June 14th 2014...

Football dreams

Prince William starred with David Beckham in a football photocall published on Clarence House's Instagram site.  It was taken at the launch of #WhoseSideAreYouOn - part of William's United for Wildlife campaign.  The initiative aims to use social media to raise awareness of endangered species as well as using the power of sport to end the illegal wildlife trade.

King Philippe of the Belgians took his wife and children to meet their country's World Cup football team ahead of their departure for Brazil and showed off the kickaround on the official royal Twitter feed.

King Juan Carlos and king in waiting, Felipe, sent messages of support to defending World champions, Spain, ahead of their match against the Netherlands.  The messages, on Twitter, were accompanied by photos of the 2010 victory but didn't bring much luck to the team who lost 5-1.

Baby love

The Swedish Royal House's Facebook page got new photos in the week when the official portraits of Princess Leonore's christening were posted on the site.

The British Monarchy Twitter feed shared this image on the morning of June 10th 2014 when Prince Philip turned 93.

Offering a warm welcome

The King of Norway played host to the President of Germany on a State Visit this week and images of the two during the trip were posted on the royal family's Facebook page.

Later in the week, the Norwegian royal Facebook page also showed photos of Crown Prince Haakon Magnus welcoming Pakistani schoolgirl, Malala Yousafzai, to Oslo where she spoke at a conference on the importance of education.  The Crown Prince also gave a speech about dignity.

The Spanish royals welcomed the President of Mexico and his wife on a State Visit during the week with several images posted on the official Twitter account, including a photo of the hosts and their guests ahead of a lunch in Madrid.

Tools of the trade

The Queen welcomed representatives of technology firms to Buckingham Palace in the week and was seen on the British Monarchy's Instagram site inspecting some of the innovations they brought with them.

Princess Beatrix was shown on the Dutch royal family's Twitter feed with spade in hand as she planted a tree to help launch National Garden Week at an event in Delft.

Food for thought

The British royal family hosted several garden parties in the week at Buckingham Palace including a special event for the Red Cross which was hosted by Prince Charles and Princess Alexandra and which featured in several photos on the Clarence House Instagram account.

The Danish royal family was in France this week for the 80th birthday of Prince Henrik but the consort and Queen Margrethe II featured in several films on the official You Tube channel including one in which they enjoy some cooking at the Chateau de Cayx.

Spanish royals join Twitter

They've been doing the social media thing for just a few hours but already the new Twitter account of the Spanish Royal Household has almost 5,000 followers.  @CasaReal went live this morning and in the last few minutes has published its first Twitpic.  The photo shows King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia at an event in Barcelona and takes its place in the royal history books as the first image on official social media for Spain's Royal Family.

The King and Queen of Spain in the first photograph published by their official Twitter account which went live on the morning of May 21st 2014

Many royal families already have their own Twitter presence with the British Monarchy leading the way.  Its official feed, @BritishMonarchy , has 661,000 followers - easily the highest number of any royal account.  @ClarenceHouse has over 380,000 while the Dutch Royal Family hits 140,000 with its @KHtweets. 

One of the photos tweeted by the Dutch Royal Household to mark King's Day on April 26th 2014

But sometimes personal accounts can be far more popular than official ones.  The Twitter feed for the Crown Prince and Princess of Norway, @Kronprinsparet, with the stamp of the Royal Household on it, has 70,000 followers but Crown Princess Mette-Marit's personal feed, @CrownPrincessMM, has over 96,000 people signed up.  And sometimes, social media can be hard work even for royals.  The Belgian Monarchy began tweeting  months ago but @MonarchieBe, is still on around 10,000 followers.  @CasaReal may have gone past that by the end of its first day on Twitter.