Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have officially overtaken William and Kate on Instagram after racking up more than 11million followers.
The Sussexes are now more popular than the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the social media platform, following a surge in followers over the last few weeks.
Harry and Meghan reportedly gained more than 500,000 followers in the four days after announcing their plans to quit the royal family.
As of this morning, they had 11.3million followers, compared to William and Kate's 11.25million fans.
The rise of the Sussex Royal account is even more impressive when considering that it was only set up last year, whereas the Kensington Royal page was started in 2015.
Harry and Meghan have also only put up 184 posts on Sussex Royal, while the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have shared 1,982 posts.
Now they must earn a living for themselves, social media will be all the more important in building that brand and allow them to reach not only their fans, but key influencers who may help them commercially.
Expert Stefan Drew – known as the Marketing Magician – says: “Social media is a powerful medium and instrumental to the Sussexes’ future. It’s a platform for Harry and Meghan to get their brand out to the world.
“They need to get their numbers up to truly harness social media, and they do that by putting the right information out there.
“If you use it correctly you can make millions, but you have to really target the audience you want to influence, and engage them, subtly.”
He explains there are big plus points for using social media.
“They can use it to say what they want to say, to put across their story without the influence of others.
"To start with, they can use it to put rumours to bed and get control of the narrative, which they’ll like.”
But he says there are risks, too: “Social media allows you to act quickly, but you’ve got to avoid anything knee-jerk.”
