It only took Twitter about 10 years, but they have finally opened up account verification to the non-elites. In the past, the only way to get a Twitter account verified was to know someone at Twitter. Seriously. I once asked a musician with the magical blue verified check mark next to his name how he got verified and he said it took him hiring a publicist who had an in at Twitter to make it happen. Blech.
Twitter states that “The blue verified badge on Twitter lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic.” Twitter may like to think that accounts of “public interest” would inevitably get caught on their radar, but up until today, @aristake (with my 33K+ followers) still hadn’t been verified. Commence jokes that Ari’s Take is not of any public interest. Wellllll @LAWeekly (with 417K followers) ain’t verified either. Take THAT LA Weekly! Wait.
Moving on.
It’s not about follower counts either. There are accounts with just a few hundred followers that are verified. You’re an artist. If you have any following at all, there is a public interest. You’ll probably need a few press articles to help validate you. And/or a Wikipedia page.
To get your account verified go here.
***Update 8/3/16 I submitted @aristake, @ariherstand and @digitalmusicnws for verification on 7/19/16. @digitalmusicnws (76K followers) was verified within two days, but @aristake (33K followers) and @ariherstand (7,200 followers) have still not been verified (and actually were rejected outright). Soooooo don’t hold your breath!
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However, before you start, you will need to make sure that your Twitter account meets all criteria:
•A verified phone number
•A confirmed email address
•A bio
•A profile photo
•A header photo
•A birthday (for accounts that are not company, brand, or organization accounts)
•A website
•Tweets set as public in Tweet privacy settings
To give your account a better chance at becoming verified, make sure it has the following:
•If the account belongs to a person, the name reflects the real or stage name of the person.
•If the account is a corporation or company account, the name reflects the real name of the corporation or company.
•The profile and/or header photo reflects the person, the corporation’s branding, or the company’s branding.
•If the account is a corporate or company account, the email address associated with the account is a corporate or company email address.
Twitter will need some info to gauge your worthiness. This is how they put it:
 •We’ll ask you to tell us why we should verify an account. If the account represents a person, we want to understand their impact in their field. If it represents a corporation or company, let us know their mission.
•When providing URLs to support your request, choose sites that help express the account holder’s newsworthiness or relevancy in their field.
Onward!
First, go here and check the box if you’re attempting to verify a band (so you don’t have to verify your birthdate). Then add a few links that show you’re important. Up to 5. Then, in 500 characters or less, tell Twitter why you’re awesome (but more so, why other people think you’re awesome).
You’ll need to upload a picture of your drivers license or photo ID. Facebook required this way back when they initially launched Pages and then they botched it and publicly posted everyone’s drivers license within the Page’s photo section. Whoops! Hopefully Twitter’s security and tech is more on top of this.
That’s it! It’s almost as easy as tweeting a photo of your junk.
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