Six years on, people are still celebrating Ed Balls Day

Image copyright @HRH_Duke_of_Url/Twitter

It's the social media fail that's celebrated every year. Ed Balls Day is a thing - on Twitter and Facebook anyway.

It started six years ago long before Ed Balls appeared on the BBC's dance show Strictly Come Dancing, when he was shadow chancellor.

He typed his name into Twitter to look for articles mentioning his name.

But instead of doing what should have just been a simple search, he actually tweeted his name in error.

And so Ed Balls Day was born.

On 28 April every year Twitter rejoices in the madness of the internet gaffe.

The hashtag #EdBallsDay started up again on Thursday evening in anticipation of the social media phenomenon and so far it's been used more than 13,000 times.

Image copyright @reelofthe51st/Twitter

Image copyright @sarah_fender/Twitter Image caption This gif of Ed Balls performance on Strictly Come Dancing is being widely shared

Barry Hutchinson tweeted: "Just been woken by my 7-year-old shouting, "He's been! Ed Balls has been!" Happy #EdBallsDay everyone."

Even big companies were keen to spread the Ed Balls love.

Image copyright Virgin Atlantic

Image copyright Andy Paradise

Others were keen to share alternative messages to mark the occasion.

Image copyright @paulcoxon/Twitter

Image copyright @greg_jenner/Twitter

No word yet from the man himself. The last time Ed Balls tweeted was five days ago.