Jeremy just joined Instagram…. get ready for some straight-talking to a new audience

Jeremy Corbyn has joined Instagram and Snapchat to give younger voters insights into his everyday life.

The Labour leader, who already has 441,000 Twitter followers and over 500,000 Facebook “likes”, won plaudits for his campaign’s effective use of social media during last year’s leadership contest. Campaign accounts such as JeremyCorbyn4Leader consistently produced viral content that helped Corbyn engage with younger voters, build up an impressive email database and, through the party’s new £3 supporter system, sign up non-members to back his bid.

While Instagram and Snapchat are not able to provide the same sort of political engagement as other forms of social media, his team sees the move as a way to shine a light on Corbyn’s day-to-day work. They hope it will allow him to show a lighter side to his personality, allowing him to keep his Twitter and Facebook profiles more overtly political.

The Islington North MP is already an avid photographer on his iPad, taking pictures on his travels around the country of his interests: bicycles, trains, local delicacies and, one presumes, manhole covers too. So far his Instagram, @Jeremy_CorbynMP, has been graced with a Tunnock’s Teacake, a bagpipes player and the London Eye. While there is no sign yet of his pet cat, El Gato, a source did not rule out the possibility of future appearances to LabourList.

His Snapchat, with the username ‘JeremyCorbynMP’ is intended to work more as a diary for the leader. There is some frustration in his office that he has been seen as silent on the issue of Europe, despite a number of more low-key interventions on the subject. It will enable users to see how busy Corbyn is, with events almost every evening, as well as showing his interactions with the public.

These are not seen as big campaigning tools, but are seen as ways of helping Corbyn build up his personal profile with supporters, and help build interactions with the grassroots in a less overtly political context.

Since packing out rooms for rallies during the leadership election, Corbyn has had a strong personal following – but one that his he has been keen to downplay, stressing that his support is based on the ideas that he represents, rather than his own appeal. This latest expansion of his social media presence could be a rare acceptance from Team Corbyn that his strength lies in his personality as well as policy. That could be an important shift in focus in helping shore up his position should he face a leadership challenge in future.