Updates on Twitter’s Paid Verification Policy: To Blue Check, or Not?

Recent changes to Twitter’s checkmark verification policy aren’t just relevant to users—they affect advertisers too. Your verification status can affect the viability and reach of both content and ads on the platform, which may influence your Twitter strategy moving forward. Here’s what we know about the new changes – and new potential perils for businesses – on Twitter:

You can’t run ads on Twitter without being verified. As of April 21^st, accounts that want to run ads on twitter have to subscribe to either Twitter Blue (their $8/month verification for individuals and small organizations) or Verified Organizations (the “gold check” higher-tier subscription at a whopping $1000/month) to run Twitter ads.¹ If you use Twitter a lot or have a substantial following, $96/year isn’t a huge price to pay for maintaining it, but recent turmoil in the platform since the Musk takeover has a lot of organizations thinking twice about staying on Twitter in general.

Unverified organizations will have their tweets deprioritized on feeds. Aside from regular paid advertising, you may use your organization’s twitter feed to post about your company to drive engagement. Without getting verified and subscribing to a blue or gold check mark, your content will get deprioritized from user “For You” feeds in favor of tweets from verified accounts.² If very few organizations end up opting for check marks, that could mean some free extra visibility for your organization if you choose to verify. If uptake ends up being high, these changes to the algorithm probably won’t have as much of an effect.

Being verified should come with some other perks, although uptake is still pretty low. The $8/month Twitter Blue subscription has been out for some time, but comparatively few users (only around 300k) have opted to sign up despite associated benefits.³ Per Twitter, some of the benefits of Blue include tweet editing, fewer ads, longer tweet length, text formatting, an “undo tweet” function, longer video uploads, 2FA, plus a few other UX perks.²This package may be worth it to Twitter enthusiasts, but doesn’t seem to be a substantial draw for organizations as of yet.

Impersonation is an issue, but Twitter says they have policies in place to help prevent it (if you pay enough). A recent scandal involving a fake, profanity-laden version of Disney Junior UK revealed the perils of paid verification on Twitter.⁴ The offensive account received a gold check despite being an impersonator, which is a scary prospect for any brand. Plenty of famous individuals have been impersonated under Twitter’s previous blue check policy, but now that it’s a paid service, it’s even more crucial that brands be on the lookout for opportunistic impostors.⁵ The “impersonation defense” and premium support package is only available for gold check verified organizations – those that are willing to shell out $12,000/year for the honor – so your typical blue check account can’t count on Twitter’s help to combat impersonators. And since the aforementioned impersonation happened to a gold check company, it’s not clear how effective their anti-impersonation measures really are.

Should My Organization Get Verified on Twitter?

It all comes down to one question: verify, or not? If you have a major presence on Twitter or have customers you want to reach who prefer Twitter, it’s not an especially expensive platform to advertise on. An extra $96 per year to be verified won’t add to the burden too much, and you’ll get some of the aforementioned perks. You’ll just need to keep an eye on some of the issues you could face in the ever-changing platform, and guard yourself against potential impersonation by getting verified ASAP. The verified organizations price tag for a gold check will likely be too high for most small to medium businesses, or for large businesses who otherwise don’t have a huge Twitter presence. With the future of Twitter in flux, it’s probably not a good time to start implementing a Twitter strategy if you haven’t in the past…but we could still help you chart a path forward if you want to explore your options.

If you have questions about implementing your social media strategy, give us a call. We’re always happy to help you find ways to move the needle—no matter what the medium is.

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