Twitter verification is an interesting phenomenon on the service; It's very visible since everybody sees and follows accounts which are verified, but also sort of secretive because nobody really knows how it works or how Twitter defines the criteria behind having one's account blessed.
It seems like Twitter verifies certain accounts in waves, bringing in
new batches of verified users on an ongoing basis, with an obvious bias
toward people who are famous, but also including those who might be
impersonated or the occasional odd exception for people (like me) who
aren't famous but happen to have a large following.
I can't explain how Twitter makes the decision to verify an account,
but after seeing another recent spate of users being verified, I thought
I'd give a little glimpse into what the experience looks like. (I'm
told that some celebrities who are invited to use Twitter or coached on
its use skip this process, but this is what us non-celebs see.)
- First, you wake up on a day that seems like any other day, but then, out of the blue: It's a direct message from the mysterious @verified
account! It says "We at Twitter would like to verify your account.
Please click this account and follow the instructions." and then gives
you a link to a little guided setup process. I got this on my mobile
phone, and wasn't surprised to find out the whole thing works just fine
on an iPhone.
- The first thing the setup guide says is "Hi!" and then it explains
"Twitter's verified badge is our way of making sure that this is you."
- Then Twitter starts to give a few bits of advice on how to be a good
tweeter; These are clearly aimed at people who aren't too familiar with
the service. Interestingly, they're grouped under the heading of "Learn
how to tweet effectively." Each one offers a sort of Goofus-and-Gallant
version of "which one is better?" and the first asks explicitly, "Which
Tweet will help double your rate of new followers for the day?". The
choices in this first test are between a bland recitation of having
watched the Oscars and a little more lively take on watching the show.
- The next step of the guide tells you when you've made the right
choice about how to tweet effectively, offering the tidbit that
"Live-tweeting a relevant event can increase your daily follower rate by
260%." Pretty heavy promotion of the Twitter-is-for-celebrities idea.
- After that, there's another quiz question: "Which Tweet will more of
your followers engage with?". Interestingly, this mimics one of the big
things we've learned from working on ThinkUp — you have to ask answerable questions on Twitter. It seems obvious in retrospect, but lots of people don't do it.
- Again the indomitable Melisa provides the right answer to Twitter's
training class, yielding the insight that "Your audience loves to
interact with you. Invite questions for a Twitter Q&A to increase your followers and engagement!"
- A final question, fundamentally challenging the about-to-be-verified
tweeter about whether they know how to drive their biggest stats on
Twitter: "Which Tweet will get more clicks, favorites and retweets from
your followers?" In addition to boldly eschewing the Oxford comma
(U.S.A.! U.S.A.!), they provide two options on
how to talk about running into Taylor Swift backstage at the Grammies,
which happens to all of us blue checkmark people all the time. One
choice is awesome and has a photo and the other choice is for idiots.
- Okay, you did it! You passed the test. (I didn't grab a picture of
whatever affirmation they offer after the third "Learn how to Tweet
effectively" page.) So now it tells you to "Increase your
trustworthiness by following other verified users", which in my case
included Gavin Newsom, who was formerly the Mayor of the hair club for
men. I did not follow him (instead I clicked "Next") but they let me
become verified anyway, and I have not yet heard any complaints about my
diminished trustworthiness.
- After all this setup, they get down to the nuts-and-bolts stuff,
telling you to "Protect your account", by asking for your phone number.
"Phone numbers allow us to contact you in case there is a security issue
with your account", which made me think someone has the job at
Twitter's office of calling celebrities and asking them "Is this stupid
tweet really from you?"
- Success at last. A happy little confirmation screen (which oddly
didn't show up properly on my iPhone browser) affirms that you're now a
proud new owner of one blue checkmark on your Twitter profile. Fawning
followers sold separately. The very top of the screen says
"Congratulations, [your name]! Your Twitter account is now verified!"
The fine print says, "With your newly verified account, you will receive
weekly activity reports with information about the number of people
following you, and simple tips about how to increase that number. Stop
getting the report by choosing 'unsubscribe' in the email footer, or
uncheck the box in your email notification settings in your profile
settings." That weekly email seems to be the same one that everybody
else gets (I get it for my other Twitter accounts), but I was verified
about six months ago, so maybe they just extended the verified email to
everyone when they added those notifications.
- And then a little postscript. This is the notification I received
immediately after finishing the verification process. It let me know
that the official @verified
account was following me. I followed it back, which reminded me that I
hadn't been following it in the first place, so how had it send me the
DM to start the process?! Twitter Magic.
Life With the Blue Checkmark
Other than of course gaining membership to an exclusive worldwide
Illuminati cabal, there really isn't any difference in using Twitter
when you're verified. Some folks think it matters a lot, and there are
definitely teenagers (and aspiring hip hop acts?) who desperately want a
verified checkmark next to their name, judging by the rash of @ replies
I got immediately after verification, from people asking how they could
be verified.
One minor thing I've noticed is that verified accounts have access to
Twitter's analytics, which I think are otherwise only accessible to
advertisers. Users who got verified because Twitter officially brought
them onto the service (who don't go through this setup process) have
told me that Twitter actually showed them the analytics features. In my
case, I didn't know I had access to it until I accidentally discovered
that fact, and this setup process didn't give any hints to that fact.
In all, despite the oddly celebrity-centric nature of the tips they
give users in the setup, I think Twitter's designed a good process for
users that they want to verify. In fact, the coaching concept is
terrific and should probably be incorporated into everybody's Twitter
experience somehow. It's obviously far too intrusive to put into the
signup flow for regular users, and the tips as written are only
appropriate for bigger accounts, but the idea of teaching people how to
tweet is a great one.
That fundamental idea, that we can teach people how to use social
media more effectively, is in fact one of the big goals for what we're
working on with ThinkUp. In our case,
though, I think we assume users can have a more goals than simply
increasing your daily follower rate or, um, your trustworthiness.
Although those are fine goals, too, I think normal users have a broad
range of things they're looking to get out of their networks.
Beyond Verification
I spend a lot of time around very digitally-savvy Twitter users, who
sort of understand the Verified checkmark to be an arbitrary,
Twitter-run program. But the less tech-savvy folks I talk to, if they're
familiar with the Verified marker, see it as much more of a status
symbol.