Ben Bradshaw has been using Snapchat to campaign for the deputy leadership

Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw has been using the social networking service Snapchat to campaign in the Labour deputy leadership race. It is thought to be the first example of Snapchat being used in UK political campaigning.

Snapchat’s user statistics are notoriously difficult to come by, but it is understood to be one of the most used social media apps in the world (now possibly bigger than Twitter) and is used overwhelmingly by 18-24 year olds. It is possible to grow a large number of ‘friends’ if people search your username – and one digital campaigns expert tells LabourList that it is “big amongst Labour activists, especially younger ones”.

Using the account Ben4deputy, Bradshaw used a Snapchat ‘story’ to send six pictures to people, with a brief explanation of his skills and priorities. You can see the full message below:

We applaud this intuitive campaigning technique. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏