That little blue badge of trust? Yes, now you don’t have to be among the upper echelon of top Twitter users and celebrities to get it. Until recently, there was no formal process for getting a Twitter account verified, and subsequently that authoritative little blue badge. It was something that happened behind closed doors, only when someone came along — and who Twitter deemed important enough — to earn the blue verified badge.
Twitter shared a little about their decision to make this process public in a blog post announcement:
Verified accounts on Twitter allow people to identify key individuals and organizations on Twitter as authentic, and are denoted by a blue badge icon. An account may be verified if it is determined to be of public interest. Typically this includes accounts maintained by public figures and organizations in music, TV, film, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business, and other key interest areas.
Our goal with this update is to help more people find great, high-quality accounts to follow, and for creators and influencers – no matter where they are in the world – to easily connect with a broader audience.
This new process will likely make it easier for a much larger pool of accounts to be verified. In the eyes of its investors, the social platform has been plagued with growth and active user problems. Twitter may envision more verified accounts as an opportunity to acquire and engage more new users.
Getting Twitter verified
So how do you go about getting verified? There is now a form you can fill out. You must go through a few simple steps to get verified, outlined below:
- Log in to the account you want verified: This isn’t a form where you can suggest accounts that should be verified but simply a way for you to self-nominate. To do so, you must be logged in to the Twitter account you’d like verified (which helps in the verification process).
- Clean up your account: Before Twitter will give you its stamp of approval, you first have to prove that you deserve it. That means making sure you have a long list of items up to date including a verified phone number, confirmed email address, bio, profile photo, header photo, birthday (for personal accounts), a website and tweets set as public.
- Make your case: After you’ve done proper housekeeping you will need to provide a little information to Twitter. While the process for getting verified is now open to the public, verified accounts aren’t exactly open to the public themselves…meaning Twitter still isn’t giving out verified accounts to everyone. You must prove to Twitter, through your digital presence, that you deserve to be verified. You must submit a list of links that prove your clout, newsworthiness and prove you actually exist. You must also explain why your account requires verification at this time, all outlined in a simple form page that should look like this:
A screenshot of Twitter’s verification form.
Once you submit this information, you are now in Twitter’s hands. Someone there will review what you’ve submitted and approve or reject your request. Not all accounts will be verified, but if you think you should be verified — but can’t seem to get a call back from Twitter — this is the process for you!