You probably noticed that both Twitter as well as Facebook (and other apps associated with it) had two classes of users:
- Regular Joes
- Lower Gentry (verified accounts)
The narrative behind the verified accounts is to distinguish between official brands/sites and non-official (fan/fake) brands/sites.
For example, if you would like to follow Katy Perry or The New York Times, you wouldn’t be interested in browsing through hundreds of fake pages that seem harmless but just aren’t the official page of that celebrity or brand.
If you are an analyst for a social media based analytics company or some content writer, you wouldn’t be interested in a fake Bloomberg profile, now would you?
Regular Joes can do pretty much everything, from Facebook Live to building their own brands on Facebook, to mention and tag whomever they want and still get a huge following on Facebook and Twitter but why do people still continue verifying their profiles if there isn’t a need to?
Well, that isn’t exactly true as there are enough marketers such as SEO guru Neil Patel who have decided to verify their accounts.
Why would I need a verified account? I already have a great “regular” account!
Why? Let’s think about it for a moment, shall we?
When you want prestige, you want people to recognize it, don’t you?
Why would you wear a Rolex when you can just wear some other watch that costs $5?
Why would you want to drive a Mercedes when you can drive a Mazda?
Why would you want to have hundreds of thousands of followers sharing and tweeting your posts and analysis when you can have a select few who do it for you?
Yes, branding is very important.
Having a verified account invites you to an exclusive club that everyone wants to be part of. People would start following and liking your tweets just to make sure they receive publicity by riding on your coattails.
In the digital media and marketing world, that is very important – if all your competitors have similar pages to yours, how would anyone find you in the clutter? Just through SEO? No, why not rebrand yourself as a boutique company, the one that serves the elite only and not the uneducated masses?
Don’t forget that having a verified account on Facebook, grants you access to Facebook Mentions, a great app that helps you say “bye bye” to branding ads. It helps you solidify your status as a market leader, it also helps others you know become verified accounts themselves.
This is similar to Linkedin Influencers, but much easier to achieve – this isn’t a closed exclusive club, but it is exclusive enough as to not allow everyone who wants to be there – be there.
All fun and games – where do I sign?
To get verified, you will need a few things prior to submitting your application.
You will need:
An existing public page under your name (you can’t use your personal page).
A history of native content posted to your page.
Some media references that have your name or image.
A website.
An iPhone or iPad with an internet connection (Android devices should work in a few months).
The Facebook Mentions Application.
Once all of these are in place, you can start the process (not all parts of the process are present):
Would we personally recommend you get verified if possible? Yes, you should – if you are a blogger who wants recognition, if you are a media brand that wants to stand out of the competition and if you are a thought leader who wants the credit one deserves – then you should get yourself verified – ASAP!