The British Monarchy To Join Facebook

It’s official: the British Monarchy and The Queen has decided to join Facebook.

Before you rush off to friend — or, even more boldly, poke — your favorite queen or heir to the throne, note that it’s only an official Page that will go live Monday morning, rather than individual profiles for each member of the monarchy. The Queen has reportedly embraced the web and sends e-mails.

The Page, a collaborative effort between Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and the Royal Collection, will feature a mix of news, links, videos and photographs of various members — primarily Queen Elizabeth, and Princes Charles, William and Harry. Although users of the social networking site will be unable to add The Queen as a "friend" or attempt to virtually "poke" her as they would with anyone with a personal profile, they will be able to find out what royal events are happening nearby and those who “Like” the Page will be able to receive updates about the Royal Family’s doings through their Facebook News Feed. Users will also be able to follow the Family’s official engagements via the wall of an affiliated Page, dubbed the Court Circular... The Facebook page is due to go live from Monday morning.

Royal Flickr\Twitter\Youtube

This is the fourth profile Britain’s royal family will have set up on a social networking site, having established a channel on video-sharing site YouTube in 2007, a profile on microblogging service Twitter in 2009 and an official photostream on photo-sharing site Flickr earlier this year.

Also featured will be information about royal events and ceremonies, searchable on a UK map. Its creation is a collaboration between Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and the Royal Collection.

The launch of the Facebook page follows the introduction of the Monarchy's Flickr account earlier this year.

Prince William has already been officially featured on social networking sites, with updates about his tour of New Zealand in January posted on to Facebook and Bebo by the New Zealand government.

Tell us: Will you “Like” the British Monarchy and Queen on Facebook?