3 ways the royal family uses social media (and what you can learn from them)

Social media extends far beyond keeping in touch with your immediate friends and family now. Social platforms have also given celebrities a new way to connect with fans – beyond reading the latest gossip in the magazines, you can now get relevant, real-time updates direct from your favourite stars themselves, creating a more intimate, interactive – and arguably meaningful – relationship.

With The Crown playing less of a role in day-to-day governance, the Royals, at times, have become something of a fantasy, a reminder of times past. Do they still have a role in modern society? Are they still relevant?

Social media has helped answer this by giving the Royals a means of direct connection with their audience, enabling them to highlight the key happenings in their lives, and the work they do every day as part of their family duties. There’s a wide range of tasks that the Royals are charged with, but many of those get lost amid scandals and gossip. Social has given the Royals a new way to link with the people who follow them – you can even communicate direct with Buckingham Palace via tweet.

As noted, over the years, many of the bigger Royal headlines have revolved around scandals, many perpetuated by ‘anonymous sources’. Some of them end up being true, others less so – but through social, the Royals now have a means of directly controlling and contributing to the narrative to ensure such reports don’t get out of hand.

For example, recently The Queen called a 3am meeting of all staff for an important announcement. News organisations around the world went into a frenzy, many speculating (and some incorrectly reporting) that The Queen was abdicating, or that Prince Phillip had passed away. Neither was true, and such storylines were quickly put to rest by an official statement from the Royals via social media, enabling them to get the message out on a wide scale.

Such capacity gives the Royals a way to nullify negative reporting and control the message, and while there’ll always be speculation and rumour surrounding such a high profile family, the Royals now have another way to respond, helping to eliminate some of the more negative reporting.

But the biggest benefit of social media for the Royals has been the opportunity to share their lives with the public, to show another side, enabling them to better connect and highlight all they do as part of their Royal duties.

This has, arguably, made the Royals more connected to modern society than ever before – while questions over their relevance will remain, it’s hard to argue the benefit the Royals provide when seeing their almost daily reports of new initiatives and meetings aimed at helping create a better world.

This also gives the Royals a new way to show off their evolving families and to give fans a new way in, beyond the paparazzi photos. And while such capacity has always existed, social gives the Royals a way to keep people more constantly updated, helping establish better connections and showcase their efforts.

Also, they gave us that great ‘mic drop’ video of Prince William and The Queen, which in itself probably did more for Royal PR than a decade of efforts before it.

As social has evolved, so too has it become a more critical element in the communicative process, a legitimate and important channel for all to consider. As highlighted here, the benefits of social can be significant, giving you and your business a new way to connect and showcase your efforts to better connect with your communities.

If it’s good enough for the Royals, it’s likely of benefit for your business too.