The British monarchy is joining social media - at least one of them. Prince Andrew, the fourth in line to the throne so far until the birth of Prince William and Kate Middleton's baby, just joined Twitter, using the handle @TheDukeOf York.

Just to show how popular he is, the prince got more than 18,000 followers just hours after he signed up for the microblogging site. He has so far 5 tweets, the latest of which was his sharing that he opened The Goldmine Centre with an accompanying picture attachment.

The prince, the second son of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, is following 51 groups and people, indicating his interests and advocacies. Among them are Fly Navy, GenerationInnovation, The RNOH Charity, EnglishNationalBallet, British Deaf News, and of course, TheBritishMonarchy.

He is also following three people who are entrepreneur leaders, namely David Nicoll, the chief executive of Studio Schools Trust; Peter Jones, the founder of UK's 1st Enterprise Academy; and Bob Cryan, the vice chancellor of Huddersfield.

He is the first member of the British royal family to get a Twitter account. Prince Andrew, like his nephews Prince William and Prince Harry, served as helicopter pilot for the Royal Navy for 22 years.

He is divorced from Sarah Ferguson who uses the handle @SarahTheDuchess in Twitter, although she is no longer considered part of the royal family because of the separation. The prince, so far, is not following his ex-wife. The ex-couple have two children - Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

According to BBC, one indicator that it is the 53-year-old prince who is tweeting is the use of the initials AY. If that initial is not there then it is his staff who tweeted.

With the personal account of Prince Andrew, will the microblogging world get to know ahead of media the birth anytime soon of the upcoming fourth in line to the British throne?