Twitter reacts to the Queen's first tweet - was it genuine?

The Queen has sent her first ever tweet at the opening of an exhibition about the information age at the Science Museum in London.

It read:" It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R."

Her account @BritishMonarchy had previously been managed by Buckingham Palace officials, but today marked the "beginning of a new era" according to one Twitter user.

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However, Sky News was quick to point out that the 88-year-old monarch did not actually compose the message herself, which was pre-written, she simply hit the send button.

The exhibition, entitled Information Age celebrates 200 years of innovation in communication and information technologies.

Science Museum director Ian Blatchford said the queen has always "followed in this tradition of embracing new technology". The monarch made her first televised address in 1957 and sent her first email in 1976, during a visit to an army base, according to The Guardian.

The reaction to the royal tweet was swift:

Some suggested she may need a few more lessons:

While others questioned the authenticity of the royal tweet: