On Sunday, controversial Nigerian musician, Naira Marley tweeted at Twitter to get him verified in 3 days or else…19 hours later he got his Twitter verification.
Have you come across those blue verification tags beside display names on Twitter? Yeah, that. Not having that tiny icon doesn’t stop you from using the microblogging platform, neither is it an endorsement by the platform. However, getting Twitter verification remains one of the most sought-after statuses on the platform.
Sometime in 2016, the company put out a verification page where users can request to be verified. But by 2017, just one short year later, the process was pulled down. Why?
According to the company, while Twitter verification is in no way an endorsement or an indicator of importance for people on the platform, it has largely been perceived as such. Thus, when people with controversial accounts got verified, people came for Twitter.
This was in no way Twitter’s fault. To get verified, users only needed to ensure that their real details are on the platform. This includes a real picture of themselves or the brand, real name, a link to their personal or business website, a public account (not private) and a bio describing clearly the purpose of their account.
After these, they head on to the Twitter verification page to fill out a form.
The whole essence of this is to determine an account of public interest and set apart the original accounts from their parodies. This account may be from personalities, dignitaries or brands in music, acting, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business, and other key interest areas.
But it’s come to symbolize a lot more, for some it’s even on their to-do list.
However, with the public submission for verification discontinued, how have users been getting verified?
Truth is there’s no specific answer to this. CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey was asked this same question in an interview with Wired. His response sounded more like a prank on one of his executives.
“There’s a guy named Kayvon, and he handles all the verification, which is the blue checkmark. So if you either DM him, or mention him, you have a high probability of getting a blue checkmark. So it’s @K-A-Y-V-Z. Verification, he’s the verification god. So just go to him and he’ll get you sorted,” Dorsey replied.
Kayvon Beykpour who happens to be Twitter’s head of product quickly debunked the information, although that didn’t stop tweets from coming at him.
Also, unlike popular opinion that people with a large number of followers are the only ones to get verified, a few instances have shown that people with a paltry amount of followers also get verified.
To get verified, many have continually pushed Twitter (with their details in place), together with their followers for those with large followings to get verified. While it hasn’t worked for some, it appears to have worked for many.
For someone like Naira Marley, he only needed to ‘threaten’ Twitter and with his large following, Twitter responded promptly and and very positively.
Either way, you have to become a massive person of interest in your field, abide by Twitter verification guidelines, in order to increase your verification chances.
Then if you are impatient, you can go the route of pressuring or ‘threatening’ Twitter to verify you. Which, with Naira Marley’s case in mind, appears to be the fastest and most effective way.
Whichever you choose to do, Good luck to you.
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