Social Media Verification: How To Get Verified on Social Media
In this article, we’ll show you how to get verified on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, TikTok, Pinterest and Snapchat. It’s important to understand the eligibility requirements when thinking about how to get social media verification. If you’re a social media addict or not, one of the things people easily spot is the blue tick of verification. They are offered to large influencers and brands.
Social Media Verification: How To Get Verified on Social Media
What does verification mean?
Verification is the process of social media sites who take your personal details to verify that you are who you say you are, and in return will place a small ‘official’ badge next to your name. This badge gives your audience trust in your account, in turn improving interaction and helping you build your following. But over the past year, some websites and apps have changed their attitude about the verification process. This is why some users end up believing that a verified account is endorsed by the platform. Today, different platforms choose an individual verification process to prevent a full blown endorsement of the individual or brand.
Facebook which owns Whatsapp and Instagram is unarguably the biggest social network for business. So naturally, it has a relatively straightforward verification process divided into blue badges and gray badges:
Blue badges are specific to the following categories of people:
- Journalists
- Popular Brand or Businesses
- Government Officials
- Celebrities
- Media
- Entertainment
- Sports Companies
If you have a good reason to be verified, with well crafted quality content, and a large amount of press or PR surrounding your brand, you head to verification. Once you’re verified, your brand will have a small blue checkbox next to its name. But it doesn’t mean that it will carry over to its sister social network, Instagram.
To get verified, just do this:
- Ensure your cover photo, logo, and profile info are completely up-to-date
- Fill out the Request a Blue Verification form and wait for a response from Facebook
Gray badges, on the other hand, are specific to business pages, and were introduced in 2015 as a way for businesses to confirm they’re authentic. The approval process is much shorter (about 48 hours) and the requirements are a lot less stringent.
Facebook is getting rid of gray badges because of user feedback showing unfavorability so you can no longer apply for it. What you can do if you’re a business is to authenticate your profiles by linking to them on official websites, updating profile imagery, and making sure contact information is accurate.
Applying for Instagram verification can be done with either a personal account or a business account. The verification process is all about establishing your Instagram account as the “authentic presence of a notable public figure, celebrity, or global brand.” A blue badge is a round seal with a little check mark that appears next to your username. The blue round check helps people avoid fake or copied accounts and helps customers find the brands or public figures they want to follow, in a more efficient and quick manner. This process helps ensure that users find the real accounts for the people and brands they’re searching for.
To look and differentiate between a celebrity account and a fan account for that celebrity, at a glance – is helpful for followers.
Are you eligible to be Instagram verified?
The blue check makes eligibility requirements more coveted, as it is not given out to just everybody. Verification is generally reserved for accounts that Instagram deems “in the public interest.” More specifically, you must be a public figure, celebrity or global brand.
Not only do you have to follow the network’s Terms of Service and Community Guidelines but according to the website, your account must also be:
- Authentic. Be who you say you are. Show Instagram that you are a real person, registered business, or brand. Verifying who you say you are requires some personal info for this very reason.
- Unique. Just one single account per person or business can get Instagram verified, with exceptions for language-specific accounts. Instagram has a policy that does not verify general interest accounts like meme roundups. Fan accounts also don’t qualify for verification.
- Public. To verify your Instagram account, surely your account is already viewable to everyone, right? But although some brands have experimented with private Instagram accounts, a private account will not qualify for verification.
- Complete info. To get verified you must have a complete bio, profile photo, and at least one post.
- Notable. Instagram especially highlights that verified accounts must “represent a well-known, highly searched person, brand, or entity.”
Even if you already have a verified logo on Facebook, doesn’t automatically mean that you are eligible to get verified on Instagram. Getting verified on Facebook is easier simply because Facebook grants verification towards small businesses and organizations, but on the other hand, Instagram says it will only grant verified logos to “notable” accounts that are “in the public interest” and “have a high likelihood of being impersonated.”
How to apply to get verified on Instagram
Getting verified on Instagram only takes a few moments. Here’s how to do it in three easy steps:
Step 1: Log in:
Firstly, enter your id and password to log into your account. If you have more than one Instagram account, log into the account you want to verify and log out of the others.
Step 2: Request verification:
1. Click on the menu icon in the top right corner of your profile.
2. Click the Settings gear icon at the bottom of the screen.
3. Click on Account.
4. Click on Request verification.
Step 3: Confirm your identity:
1. Fill in your Instagram account name and complete the following fields:
- Full Name: Your full, legal name, identical your government-issued identification.
- Known As: This could be your name or the name of your company. Use the name that people generally know you as. For example, if you usually go by a nickname or use your middle name instead of your first name, enter that information here.
- Category: Choose from blogger/influencer, makeup, government/politics, music, sports, fashion, entertainment, news/media, business/brand/organization, or any other category. Pick the one that makes the most sense for your brand.
2. Upload a copy of your government-issued photo ID or an official business document:
For an individual account, simply use a driver’s license, passport, or government-issued identity card. For a business account, try to use a tax return, a utility bill in your company name, or your articles of incorporation. Ensure the name on your document matches the name you entered above.
3. Tap Send:
After you click the send button, Instagram will go ahead and review your application for verification. Aside from other factors, they will also be looking to “confirm the authenticity, uniqueness, completeness and notability” of your account.
After reviewing your application, Instagram will notify you whether your request is approved or denied. You’ll see the message in your Instagram notifications. But don’t expect a response right away. There’s no specified timeline for how long the process takes, but it’s generally at least a couple of days.
Please remember that Instagram won’t EVER ask you to pay for verification, and they will not send you an email asking about your verification request. If you happen to get a request to pay, or an email to send more details, you’re talking to a fraud.
Twitter has paused all new account verifications since February 2018. The social media network decided to pause verifications for new accounts while it worked on a new verification program. However, there is a hack which might work to get the coveted blue tick which includes going in another direction.
- Log into your twitter account and go to the Help Center
- Next, scroll down till you reach “Security and hacked accounts” and tap on it.
- Next, go down till you see “ Spam and Fake accounts” and tap on “Report impersonation accounts”.
- Under “How do I report an impersonation violation?”, click on “file an impersonation report”.
For the sake of getting the blue verification logo, you’re going to have to prove to Twitter that your account and brand is being impersonated. After you click on: “An account is pretending to be me or someone I know”, just go ahead and fill out the form and submit it for reviewing.
This method may or may not work and hopefully your goals are achieved.
YouTube
Yes even YouTube has a verification process and it may not be as well known as some other platforms.
- Most social media platforms have a standard email verification process but YouTube requires you to upload a video longer than 15 minutes.
- A gray check marks the verification tick meaning that official channels of creators, artists, companies, or public figures are verified by YouTube.
- This is done to help, “distinguish official channels from other channels with similar names on YouTube.”
- You can normally apply for verification once you’ve surpassed 100,000 subscribers.
TikTok
Once called the video platform Vine, TikTok blew up among the teenagers for its fun, bite-sized videos. Today, it also attracted larger-than-life stars and celebs which make a verification program a must have!
Currently, there are two methods of verification on TikTok: verified users and popular users.
- In order to become a verified user, you need to show that you are a person of note or an actual celebrity, so it’s probably out of your reach (for now!).
- On the other hand, a popular user status is easier, but more mysterious. The TikTok support team will only pick you if you are someone who consistently makes great content on the site.
- There isn’t a page where you apply for the status, it simply happens to you. This is a faster way to accomplish your mission!
Verified accounts on Pinterest have a cute little small red checkbox inside of their profile photo. This is a way to publically show that your Pins are indeed coming from your company.
It’s really easy to get verified on this social media platform if you do the following:
- Go to the Settings page on Pinterest
- Change your profile picture to your business’s logo
- And that’s it!
Snapchat
As of now, Snapchat does not have a public verified program. That being said, it does have a verification program for celebrities with huge (and we mean huge) Snapchat reach. Some users in the program include social media icons DJ Khaled, Nick Jones, Ryan Seacrest and Jared Leto.
- Big reach users are invited to an invite-only verification program.
- To become a big reach user you need to have an extreme amount of followers and reach.
- After they are verified, these accounts have a small emoji placed next to their name in the app.
If you’re trying to improve your brand, it is highly recommended to get verified on as many social networks as possible. With our guide, you now know how to get started on one social media platform at a time and expand your reach.
