How to Get Verified on Twitter

If you’ve spent time on Twitter, you’ve seen them. Depending on how much time you’ve spent on Twitter, you’ve probably wondered “what are these doing here?” No, not trolls, but the elusive blue and white verification badges.

First handed out in 2009, these little badges seen on the accounts of some of your favorite entertainers, athletes, politicians, and so forth, have become highly sought after. One of the most common questions we hear is “how do I get one of those badges?”  If only it were so simple…

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Verified Accounts on Twitter

Twitter’s official page about verified accounts doesn’t do a whole lot to peel back the curtain, and in a lot of ways, that’s probably for the best. However, there are some do’s and don’ts to the process that we’ve been able to piece together that might help you in your journey.

DO: Be someone (or a brand) that’s worthy of verification. This does not necessarily mean having a high follower count. If you are well-known and particularly at risk of being impersonated, your chances of being verified just went up.

DON’T: Create spam accounts designed to impersonate the account you want verified. There’s enough nonsense on the internet as it is.

DO: Be active on Twitter. There’s no hard and fast rule here, but being an active user will convey to Twitter that you are who you say you are.

DON’T: Campaign publicly for a verification badge. Yes, the checkmark can be a status symbol, but what you do with your verified account is much more important to your followers than simply having a shiny new badge.

DO: Have an agency? Have them contact Twitter on your behalf from a non-public email account.

DON’T: Add a badge to your cover photo to “hack” your way into being verified. If Twitter catches on to this sort of tomfoolery, they can (and likely will) suspend your account.

DO: Network. Know someone who works for Twitter? Know someone who knows someone who pulls strings around the Twitter office? Talk to them! It is a social networking site after all and you’ll need one of these relationships to make that verification happen.