The Dutch Royal Family joins Instagram

The Dutch Royal Family has joined Instagram and they picked a pretty special day to do it. As the whole of the Netherlands began enjoying King's Day celebrations as Willem-Alexander turned 50, the ruling house joined social media's photo hub. The picture for the history books is this one, of the King and Queen of the Netherlands and their three daughters arriving in Tilburg by train for King's Day. It's their first Instagram snap and it wasn't lonely for long.

Koning Willem-Alexander en zijn dochter Prinses Catharina-Amalia #Koningsdag #Tilburg #WA50 #vaderendochter 📸ANP

A post shared by Koninklijk Huis (@koninklijkhuis) on Apr 27, 2017 at 5:33am PDT

The Dutch royal Instagram account (koninklijkhuis) shared a fabulous photo album from King's Day with snaps appearing regularly throughout the celebrations. And they were big hits. Within hours, the account had brought in over 60,000 followers with that first photo getting over 27,000 likes in less than 24 hours. Another image, of the King of the Netherlands and his heir Catharina-Amalia, was on 14,000 hearts almost instantly.

Prinses Marilène, Prins Maurits, Prinses Laurentien, Prins Constantijn, Prins Floris, Prinses Aimée, Prinses Annette, Prins Bernhard, Prins Pieter-Christiaan en Prinses Anita vieren #Koningsdag mee in @gemeentetilburg #WA50 #Prins #Prinses 📸ANP

A post shared by Koninklijk Huis (@koninklijkhuis) on Apr 27, 2017 at 5:04am PDT

Launching on such a special day was a PR stroke of genius. The massive interest in the King's Day celebrations, the royal birthday and the events that will follow across the weekend means that this Instagram account immediately became the go to social media account of the day. It was launched in style too, with a tweet signed WA by the King of the Netherlands himself.

De grote finale. Op het Piusplein treden de Tilburg AllStars op: bekende Tilburgse zangers onder aanvoering van @guus.meeuwis, @kennybworld en @gers_pardoel! #Koningsdag #WA50 #latenweproosten 📸Robin Utrecht

A post shared by Koninklijk Huis (@koninklijkhuis) on Apr 27, 2017 at 5:20am PDT

The Dutch decision to join Instagram means that nearly all the ruling houses of Europe are now using this form of social media. The biggest account is easily Kensington Palace's Instagram with its 1.7 million followers while the newest channels until yesterday were those of the Norwegian and Belgian families. The Spanish Royal Family is yet to join but that must surely only be a matter of time now. Instagram is a great way for royals to tell their story in the way they want it told and it also reaches a younger generation, eager for images. The photos that hit home and high heart tallies tell us what's popular about royalty right now. It's a window on life at the start of 21st century and by opening their new account in such a slick way, the Dutch royals have put a new spotlight on their royal story.