Labour Has Launched A Tool To Let Everyone Find Out Who Shares Their Name

The party is trying to increase the number of registered voters – and boost its own support in the process. It's all part of the political battle for control of Facebook.

Labour has launched a new tool to encourage people to register to vote by telling them how many people share their name.

Labour

Key in your name and the system tells you how many people registered to vote in the UK share it. It also asks for your email address, so Labour can get in touch in the future.

It's another clever example of how the party is trying make small apps go viral to win the online battle against the Conservatives, who have substantially more money than Ed Miliband's party to spend on online adverts.

Key in your name – such as "Ed Miliband" – and you'll find exactly how popular it is among the country.

Labour.org.uk

In this case, you find that there are just five Milibands are registered to vote in the UK.

And then you're left with a shareable result to stick on Facebook.

Labour.org.uk

The tool, launched to coincide with National Voter Registration Day, isn't even branded by Labour, but the party believes it's still worthwhile. Making ideas such as How Many of Me go viral means Labour doesn't have to spend big money on advertising – the party claims it is spending just 7% of the amount the Conservatives are committing to online advertising – while also enabling the party to subtly gather details about potential supporters.

Tools such as this one follow in the footsteps of last year's What's Your NHS Baby Number viral success, which Labour says was used by almost 1 million people.

As a Labour source puts it: "We don’t have the budget to be able to do the same [as the Tories] so instead we focus on making shareable campaigns that surprise and delight."