Micro-blogging website; Twitter Inc. has a built-in social hierarchy. There are those with blue tick marks next to their name – which denotes a verified account, and those without blue ticks.
Verification was necessitated by the number of phony and fake accounts on Twitter, which were often mistaken for the real person. Checking if you’re tweeting to the right person is one of the basics of using Twitter without screwing up. But what started out as a way to help readers sort the real from the fake has turned into an ego exercise.
Well, that has officially changed. Twitter now lets anyone apply for a verified account, as long as they meet certain requirements.
“We hope opening up this application process results in more people finding great, high-quality accounts to follow, and for these creators and influencers to connect with a broader audience,” said Tina Bhatnagar, Twitter’s vice president of User Services.[related-posts]
How to get verified on Twitter
So how can you go about getting verified? Twitter has posted guidelines telling users the kind of requirements needed from their account, apart from which types of accounts it is likely to verify.
- Twitter name that matches your real name or stage name (or your company’s real name if it’s a corporate account).
- A verified phone number.
- A confirmed email address (corporate accounts should use their corporate email address).
- A detailed bio for your account.
- A real profile photo of yourself or your brand (which can be easier if you check out our tips to shoot the perfect profile picture).
- A header photo that reflects you or your brand.
- A birthday (for accounts that are not company, brand, or organization accounts) A website link in your account that reflects you or your brand.
- Tweets set as “Public” in Twitter’s privacy settings.
- A brief statement explaining your impact on your particular field, and why Twitter should verify you; a mission statement, if you will.
- A scanned copy of a government-issued ID (like a passport or driver’s license).
- Once you have updated your Twitter profile to meet all of these requirements, head to Twitter Verification Website and fill out the form step by step.
Twitter will then check if you meet all of its requirements and ask for your mission statement. You may or may not be asked for the scanned ID in this process, but it’s also unclear what security precautions Twitter is taking to make sure your scanned ID is securely locked and doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
Finally, Twitter will send you an email soon saying whether your request has been approved or not. If your verification application is denied, you can try again 30 days after receiving the rejection email.
source: MakeUseOf and TimesOfIndia
