The borough’s politicians hope to tweet, tag and text their way into the hearts of Wandsworth’s youth to secure success in May’s general election.

Mirroring Barack Obama’s successful social networking campaign two years ago, candidates are embracing Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to communicate with their constituents.

They hope the new tactics will reach floating voters in the borough’s three constituencies where many young people work long hours in the city and have no time to attend surgeries.

Tooting MP Sadiq Khan, who is among the top most followed MPs on Twitter, said: “We need to get young people into politics. Social networking is one way of doing that.

“The trick is to be accessible to constituents and trying to use as many forms of communication as possible.”

The internet has proved a valuable way of fundraising and has meant people can now contact politicians with the click of a mouse instead of having to write letters.

Forums such as Putney SW15 and Tooting Life have also provided candidates with a platform for their views.

Conservative headquarters were quick to catch on and drafted in people from the Obama campaign to train candidates in online etiquette, according to parliamentary candidate for Tooting, Mark Clarke.

He claims to have the most names on his email list of all the Tory candidates, 7,500, while his colleague Justine Greening, MP for Putney, encourages people to contact her via a revolutionary MP Textline.

She said: “[Social networks] can be effective, especially if they are tailored to local issues people are particularly interested in.

“Hopefully I use whatever form is best for them – everyone is different.”

Mr Clarke added: “You still need to do the old constituency stuff like knocking on doors. But you can’t just do that anymore. If you do, then you’re done.”

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats are taking the old-fashioned approach this year but may branch into online campaigning in the coming months.

Matthew Green, chairman of Battersea and Tooting Lib Dems, said: “Face-to-face contact is very much our approach.

“We found it has more impact than anything else.