JK ROWLING has “done an Ed Balls” by tweeting her own name – much to the delight of her legion of fans.
Twitter has a long history of producing blunders and mishaps from celebrity users unfamiliar with how the site works.
Perhaps the most famous incident came in 2011 when then Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls accidentally tweeted his own name to thousands of followers.
The tweet has since been shared nearly 100,000 times and has become an internet in-joke – with Twitter users celebrating “Ed Balls day” every April 28.
JK Rowling appeared to have fallen foul of the same mistake on Twitter, but later insisted it was a typo caused by a bumpy road.
This morning the Harry Potter author accidentally tweeted her own username to her 6.67m following on the social media site.
The tweet strongly implies that Rowling – like Balls – might have been trying to look up what people have been saying about her on the social media platform.
The mishap immediately drew comparisons to Ed Balls’s mistake – with many followers responding simply with “Ed Balls” – the reply many made to the politician’s blunder four and a half years ago.
Others piled in to comment further on the classic misstep.
Catherine Crosland called the tweet an “Ed Balls moment.”
Another user – Tor Charlesworth – simply asked: “Are you alright dear?”
Another joked that Rowling was “reminding herself” of her own name.
Others saw the funny side of Rowling potentially searching what people are saying about her online.
She said: “Caught out JK Rowling. We’ve all done it.”
But Rowling was quick to delete the tweet, capping the chance for her fans to organise a “JK Rowling day” every February 5.
In the aftermath she tweeted: “Laughing. I wasn’t tweeting myself, I meant to tweet Jenny Colgan. Don’t tweet on bumpy roads!”
Jenny Colgan is a Fife author best known for writing baking-themed novels.
