Jeremy Corbyn's Social Media Team Declares Victory In Digital Campaign War

Labour leader scores big wins on Twitter and Facebook as Boris Johnson clings on to poll lead ahead of Thursday's election.
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Jeremy Corbyn’s social media team has hailed its election campaign as the most successful Britain has ever seen, achieving video views that far outstrip what Boris Johnson has managed.

Corbyn’s Twitter account has posted 17 videos with over a million views each and on Facebook the Labour leader’s account has had 16 videos with over a million views each.

He has more than 1.5m likes and followers on Facebook and 2.2m followers on Twitter.

During the campaign so far, Corbyn has enjoyed five times more video views and 81% more impressions than in the entire 2017 election, in 10 days fewer.

He has also seen more than six times the number of retweets that Johnson has had; 11 times what the Conservatives got; and five times what his own Labour Party account received.

On Facebook, Corbyn has had eight times the shares of Johnson and six times the video views, plus four times the shares of the Conservatives and five times the video views.

The Labour leader has had 67% more shares and more video views than in the last campaign, again in 10 days fewer.

The figures do not include the social media posts planned for the final days of the campaign, including a video collaboration with singer Emeli Sande.

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Corbyn’s digital team grew from three to eight staff for the election, including videographers, copywriters, producers and social media strategists. It works separately from the Labour Party’s social media structures.

The team was focused on looking beyond Corbyn’s base and influence and persuade non-supporters.

Notable video campaigns included doctors and nurses and high profile celebrities as the party pushed home its message on the NHS.

A video featuring American comedian Rob Delaney was the most successful of the campaign so far and gained more than 13.3m views.

Corbyn’s “60 second challenge” video got 6.9m views while another featuring a “scapegoating politician” had 6.5m views.

The party also targeted key voters and constituencies. A video highlighting its policy to compensate the Waspi women was promoted to and then widely shared by 1950s women. 

As part of the digital campaign war, the Conservative Party quadrupled its spending on Facebook from £5,577 on December to £22,491 the following day. Labour spent £726,000 between November 6 and December 3 – an average £26,000 a day.

The Tories have nonetheless managed to dominate news coverage on several occasions with their social media activity – including the row over the party press office’s decision to re-brand itself as “factcheckUK” for the duration of the ITV leaders debate.