With more than 3 billion active users around the world, social media has taken over all aspects of our lives, especially digital marketing. Countless marketers around the world are trying to build brand awareness, generate leads, boost their sales, and gain the trust of their customers.

There are many rules defined by social media platforms to prevent hackers, scammers, and defrauds from damaging your accounts. For an instance from Instagram’s terms of use: “You cannot attempt to buy, sell, or transfer any aspect of your account (including your username) or solicit, collect, or use login credentials or badges of other users”.

Social media safety is of paramount importance and one way of proving the credibility and safety of your account is by getting verified. Twitter was the first social media service that used verification, and it soon became viral among all social media platforms, especially Instagram.

Blue verified badges are security checks that appear next to your name on your account. It actually means the platform, for example, Instagram, has confirmed that the account is owned by a specific person, public figure, celebrity or brand it represents.

Even verified accounts on some social media, especially Instagram, cannot be trusted because there is currently a black market for selling and buying verified accounts.

There is a range of prices for verification, based on some people familiar with the subject. For instance, verification checkmarks on Instagram can be bought with 3,000-8,000 USD.

In this article, we are going to explain why social media verification is important for your marketing strategy.

You are not a fake account

Fake accounts on different social media platforms are a great concern for both common users and professionals. Based on Social Tradia, even many influencers’ accounts on Instagram are fake trying to earn money by selling their accounts.

Influencer marketing is now the most important means of building brand awareness and many marketers believe that paying money to influencers can be easily returned. It is predicted that a whopping 10 billion USD will be paid to Influencers by brands in 2020. 19% of marketers will probably spend $1,000 – $10,000 per year to influencers in this year.

Accordingly, numerous people are spending money to purchase influencers’ accounts on Instagram that have many followers, although it is not allowed based on regulations. They want to use the influencers’ followers to boost their business. Of course, verified accounts are more reliable and people usually trust the products/services that are advertised on them.

Verification makes you look genuine so that social users believe you are a human who is in charge of a business, not a bot. People usually do not want to interact with fake accounts, and subsequently, when they recognize that you have a genuine profile, they will engage way easier.

You are an important reference

People usually pay attention to what influential personalities say or suggest since they think they are a true reference in a certain niche.

It is well-established that when you post as a verified account on social media, your content will be considered more valid and subsequently get more engagement. Verification provides instant social proof and credibility when anyone searches you or your brand on the Internet or on different social media platforms.

Even if you generate high-quality content and post them on different platforms, you cannot reach out to all potential audiences without verification. Remember that there are countless accounts that are copying from other references.

So, if you want to be different, you have to think of being verified. The impact of a simple post from a verified account is way more compared to a normal profile.

If you want to be known as a reference in your niche on social media, you need to acquire verification for your social accounts and post relevant informative content.

If you can produce compelling and useful information for your followers, they will certainly trust you when you want to advertise a product/service. This is exactly why verification is of great importance for your business in terms of authority.

You can build a strong brand identity and customers’ loyalty

Marketing is all about building brand awareness and making people keep buying your products/services. This cannot happen unless you build a strong brand identity and subsequently keep your customers loyal to your brand.

In social media marketing, this cannot happen without a verified account with a heavy social presence. Getting verified can help you with networking and leads your company toward the forefront of your niche as a trusted brand.

Please put yourself in your customers’ shoes. You will compare the different options available on social media to purchase specific goods. Certainly, you will not buy from an unverified profile. This is exactly why marketers spend money to collaborate with influencers. Because they can make customers trust in a brand and then buy the products/services.

You can get more followers

Social media competition is all about getting more followers and increase your posts exposure compared to your competitors.

Social media users are more inclined towards verified accounts to follow. Because they think they can learn something from a valid source of information. Accordingly, verified profiles have usually more followers in comparison with similar unverified accounts.

Moreover, in order to boost your business, you need to collaborate with relevant brands and influencers and a verified account is a must for a strong relationship.

The other brands and influencers will respond to your requests if they can verify your account. Also, being in a relationship with well-known profiles can bring you more followers.

Having the blue badge proves that your account is worth following, paying attention to, and engaging with. It’s exactly how you can know it’s really a specific person or brand on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

Other abuses

Based on what we described, social media is now under an unprecedented scrutiny. It is not limited to business. For example, there have been reports of 8 years old children using dating apps by presenting fake information.

As another example, fears about the spread of fake political and social news across social media platforms from bots are increasing. Services like Twitter and Facebook have already banned many accounts for being fake.

Religion and other sensitive subjects have also been subjected to abuses by fake accounts on social media.

Despite all the efforts being made by social media services, you cannot still be sure about a safe and credible social media experience.

So, verification is just one criterion by which you can confirm the authenticity of an account on social media.

Conclusion

We described verification on social media as a way brands build trust with their customers. The blue verification badge is what most social media users are familiar with because it is usually given to eligible brands, media organizations, and public figures.

However, it has brought a lot of controversial discussions because there are many reports that this badge has being abused. There are also other matters you have to study about in order to know how to acquire a new Instagram account safe and securely. For example, social media escrow services are common among professionals for transferring and customizing accounts.