How to Get Verified on Twitter: The Growth Hacker’s Guide

Do you have trust issues?

Good.

You’re like everyone on the face of the earth, including your prospects.

That’s why the verification process is critical for any social media platform and Twitter is no exception to this rule.

Getting the Twitter blue checkmark tells people you’re legitimate.

And, you need that.

In today’s guide, we’ll be looking at how to get verified on Twitter and how you can increase your odds of getting the blue checkmark.

It can be difficult if you’re first starting out, but as a growth hacker, you should be able to pull it off.

#TwitterVerificationTime!

Why Get Verified on Twitter?

Truth be told, getting verified on Twitter doesn’t mean that the platform endorses you; it just means that they’ve verified and confirmed that you are who you say you are.

But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a lot of excellent benefits.

Here are just a few.

Social Proof

Let’s start with the obvious, which is social proof.

By being verified, Twitter recognizes that you’re a legitimate person handling the account.

Regardless if it doesn’t officially endorse you – as we mentioned earlier – it still appears as social proof in the eyes of your followers because it seems as if you’re indirectly being supported by the company.

Many people know that only certain types of individuals or brands get verified, and by getting verification, you automatically join that unofficial group of people.

This goes a long way in establishing your presence on the platform.

Prevents People from Impersonating or Copying You

If you’re managing a high-growth brand or a large organization, getting Twitter verified becomes critical as part of protecting your brand. This is especially true for brands with high competition in their industry or face a lot of attacks.

By getting the blue checkmark, you can assure people who are seeing your Tweets and following you that you are the real deal and that they can trust you.

It also puts impersonators at bay because when people search for your handle, they’ll pick the account with the blue checkmark instead of the one without one.

Think of it as a deterrent.

It Builds Trust With Your Followers

For some reason, the blue checkmark is also an indicator of trust.

If Twitter can verify your identity, then many of your followers will trust you even more.

When your current followers notice that you’ve just got verified, that will add plus points to your credibility.

Recognition

People who have a blue checkmark are usually people that are recognized for their contribution to Twitter’s feeds. So, if you’re in a particular industry and you have a blue checkmark, you’re instantly recognized as someone with authority.

Keep this in mind if you’re targeting influencer status.

It Helps Build a Following

Building on the idea of social proof, there’s also a chance that you’ll build a more significant following on Twitter with a blue checkmark because you’ll be associated with notable brands and even personalities.

Remember, there is a weird correlation between social proof and the size of your following.

The Criteria for Twitter Verification

The criteria for Twitter verification really depend on what you want to get verified for.

But, here are the general guidelines that you should keep in mind.

Accuracy and Authenticness of Your Account

First of all, if you’re an individual, you may be required to provide a form of official identification, either your passport or driver’s license, according to Twitter. We strongly suggest you stick to these two forms of identification as they are the most common in each country, and Twitter might not recognize other government IDs.

If they ask you for your official website or email address, make sure you use the domain associated with your organization’s verified account on Twitter.

(Note: you should always use an email with a custom domain in all your digital marketing accounts, it doesn’t just add to your credibility with prospects, but it also helps social networks identify you as “legit.”)

Securing your identity is the first step on how to getting verified on Twitter.

Notability

Once Twitter ascertains that you are who you say you are.

Now, they’ll want to know if you’re famous enough to be verified on the platform.

They have many ways to determine this; they have internal systems – or signals – that will tell them if you’re worth giving the blue checkmark to.

However, they will still require you to submit some documentation depending on what type of category you wish to be verified in.

Twitter might ask you for news links that can prove that there’s significant coverage about you and your brand; make sure these links are from reputable news sources and not just PR blasts.

For specific links, they might ask you for a Google Trends profile that shows search volume indicating your popularity or a Wikipedia article that meets particular standards of Wikimedia.

Depending on what industry you wish to get verified in, they’ll ask you for a link to an industry-standard website that cites you as being part of the industry. For example, if you’re an entertainer, you might have to submit your IMDB profile link.

Lastly, you could get verified if you meet the top 0.05% of the Twitter population with the most mentions or followers.

Using the Account

Twitter would never verify an account that’s not active on their platform.

That would make no sense, and it wouldn’t help their ecosystem.

So here are a couple of things to keep in mind before requesting verification.

• Ensure that you haven’t received a lockout in the past 12 months. This means if you were violating Twitter’s terms and they admonish you with a 12-day or one-week lockout, you’re automatically not eligible.
• Your information must be complete with both a phone number and email account.
• Lastly, you’ve got to be using Twitter regularly.

Now, if you’ve grown your account from scratch and aren’t doing anything too ridiculous with it, you should be good to go for verification.

(This is why we advise people not to do anything spammy on social media accounts.)

Types of Verified Accounts

• Content creators and other influential individuals
• Government
• News organizations and individuals in news
• Companies, brands and organizations
• Entertainment
• Sports and gaming
• Activists and organizers

Make Sure Your Twitter Account is Optimized

It helps to make sure that your Twitter account is optimized; this means using your real name or brand in the handle, writing a bio that reflects your authenticity, and having a profile picture that shows who you are.

These steps do three things: they follow Twitter’s guidelines on profile completion, they make you seem more authentic, and of course, they help you bring in more prospects by turning your profile into a landing page.

We won’t go into a lot of detail regarding profile optimization right now.

We have a full guide on Twitter optimization that you can check out here.

How to get Verified on Twitter

First of all, log into Twitter and once you’re on your feed, click on “More” on the lefthand pane.

This will bring up a submenu and you will want to click on “Settings and privacy”.

Navigate to “Your account” and then click on “Account information”, this will open another menu.

Under account information you’ll find the section called “Verified”, click on the hyperlink to “Request Verification”.

A popup should appear enabling you to “Start request” for Twitter verification.

Select a category that applies to you.

Now, the Twitter algorithm is good – no doubt about that – so it can tell if you’ve purposely picked the wrong category. So you need to pick the right category.

Now depending on which category you choose, you’ll be presented with subcategories then with multiple options to prove to Twitter that you should be verified.

For the purposes of this guide, we’ll focus on brands.

If you choose to request verification as a “Company, brand, or organization”, choose whether you’re a “Prominent organization or affiliate” or “Senior leader or executive”. (Note: you can’t get verified as a “Senior leader or executive” unless your organization is verified first.)

Next, provide Twitter with either a link on the profile of your search traffic on Google Trends, an article on Wikipedia, or the link to your company’s profile on a stock exchange.

Can you Lose Your Verified Status?

The short answer is “yes, you can”.

Twitter can remove your status based on your activity and major changes to your account.

If you’ve been inactive for a long time and fail to Tweet on a regular basis, you pretty much don’t contribute to the platform so you will lose verification.

Major changes to your account such as a handle change are also factors.

And, of course, violation of their terms and conditions, and lying about who you are legitimate causes for losing verification status.

What’s important here is to make sure that you don’t lose your integrity with your followers and the platform.

Keeping Twitter Verification

Now that you’re Twitter verified, great job!

Is it time for you to go nuts?

Nope.

You still have to abide by twitter’s rules and regulations to make sure you keep your verification. As evidenced by the previous section, you can lose your verified status, so make sure you follow those rules.

Here are other notes that you should keep in mind:

• Don’t do anything that will make Twitter angry or confused. We’re also talking about the algorithm here, so make sure you keep your handle and don’t get yourself reported, and have a human check you out.
• Post regularly and stay active; you worked so hard in getting verification, it would be a shame not to use it.
• If you’re still waiting for verification, don’t edit a blue tickmark next to your profile photo. This is just senseless and spammy.
• Don’t get into any fights with other Twitter users. It’s not only distasteful, but your risk of being flagged gets higher.

How to Fast-Track Twitter Verification

Unfortunately, there’s no way to fast-track Twitter verification unless it’s a special case – think political figures who might suffer from having fake accounts.

However, as long as you meet all their special criteria, you should be good to go.

Make sure everything is optimized while you’re at it, and that you’re not changing things up too often.

Takeaways on How to Get Verified on Twitter

Getting verified on Twitter might be a complicated process, but it’s not impossible.

Given the many benefits that you get from it as a growth hacker, you should at least try.

The social proof, recognition, and growth that you get out of a verified Twitter account are just so much that it makes no sense just to brush off verification.

Now, if you don’t meet eligibility as an influencer, that’s perfectly fine. You can always try in another category, such as your organization’s brand.

You have to keep trying.

That’s what growth hacking is all about.