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This is a great question! So I’ve never paid for a $1 for any verification.
I was a huge content creator 3 years ago, and was approached by Snapchat after they kept viewing my snap and saw that I was a very engaging user, later on verifying me, I didn’t think much of what Verification was but this was my first later on as a creator brands wanted to collaborate with me and reach a new audience, being verified allowed my content and profile to show up on the For You Page of snapchat. After press noticed me and my content, Instagram approached me also wanting to learn more about me and how I grew so successfully on Snapchat and their platform. And wanting my feedback internally later on an employee reached out saying Instagram team is gonna verify me and to keep an eye out for it. After that a large following started to notice my account from my comments and messages. Which got brands attention wanting to work together as before with Snapchat. This then started a chain reaction of other social media platforms learning more about me and verifying me on TikTok, Spotify, Google and many more without saying anything or even asking because they knew that I was a trusted content creator by some of the top 2 social media platforms. Now after being verified on every platform for over 2-3 years doesn’t seem that special because brands and creators cheat via another brand or agency making creators on TikTok that dance and do nothing seems famous and over hype the social media. So in the long run I’m not a crazy fan about it like I used to doesn’t bring in the money like it did 2 years ago because everyone thinks their famous now even with 500 followers no offense to anyone. But as an agency it is fun making money selling verification but does make me laugh because in the long run it’s not gonna make them anymore money as someone with more followers and not verified. And not same value it used to be over 3 years ago, but I do still wish I did get Twitter Verified and idk why I want it so badly either because it isn’t gonna make me anymore money in any way.
Totally depends on the case. For most though, the only increase they will see is the number of DMs that read along the lines of “hEy CaN yOu HeLp Me GeT vErIfIeD?!” … as mentioned above it’s definitely lost its appeal.
Have all mine verified, but didn’t pay. In my case it does nothing. Is it cool? Sure. But the bank doesn’t accept cool points yet. My mortgage doesn’t let me pay in cool points either.
Now you see ecom kids verified and use that as leverage to sell their bs courses. You then have clowns that post celebration videos thanking Instagram for verifying them when people know they just found someone to submit them. The whole scope of verification has changed so much from what it was just five years ago.
The effectiveness/appeal of the badge has definitely decreased over the years. Just the other day I was at a lunch meeting and a girl asked the server to speak to a manager. She then asked if they would comp the meal if she posted and tagged the place “on my verified Instagram page” and the manager laughed and said " lol who are you?! nah, you can pay like everyone else…I mean you are famous, right?! lol. Then this tab shouldn’t be a problem" …we are talking maybe a $30 lunch tab.
Case by case. Massive creators with huge audiences that are trying to ride their “influencing” career as long as possible and milk as much $…yeah, it will help, as most large brands like to see the badge. But for the average person could put that $$$ towards things that will actually help them grow their business and make a lot more $$ down the line.
I think it’s very region based. Not this may sound stupid but, I know a couple of my friends who got verified here in the Middle East and paper just started rolling in like crazy. It seemed like brands were instantly more inclined to approach them for brand partnerships & paid promo. Then again, I do live on an island so I couldn’t possibly compare this to the USA or another country but I know in my case if I were to get my page verified I’d easily get a lot of cash locally.
Also, I mean it really depends on what the person is planning to do with it. If they just want to get it and not even push out quality content and really utilize it to the max it’s worthless. Tthis is the Gary Vee speaking in me rn but yeah. If you approach people for collabs & just try to network and expand - You could really get some good stuff out of it.
As weird as this may seem, I know an artist locally who approached a famous tiktok artist for a collab in the past and he was very reluctant. He got verified then BOOM. They got a track dropping soon. Yes it’s messed up but I think if utilized properly it can be a great tool.
I was working with several influencers and celebs and helping them grow their IG accounts. Almost all of them, asked me about verifications because brands were increasing their remuneration per post once they were verified.
For instance, one female beauty influencer based in the US used to get $50/video post when she was at 70k followers without being verified. Her account grew to 180k plus verification. It went from 50 to 600 a video.
It’s worth the investment if you are a musician, someone looking to collaborate with brands or are selling something through IG. On a side note, I have some clients who do it for the ‘cool’ or ‘competitor is verified’ factor as well. My own brother wanted it for that reason.
Also, I don’t agree that everyone knows that you have paid someone to submit you. The swapd community or marketing agency community might but the lay person has zero clue that you can game the system.
The point of the average person not knowing you can buy it is very valid. I think coming from the agency side gives you a different POV. The same way a marketer looks at an add and wonders how in the world people can fall for it, meanwhile it’s delivering a massive ROAS.
Literally 5 min before I typed out my response above someone sent me a post by a drop shipper that was a video thanking Instagram for acknowledging his program’s legitimacy. The average person was more than likely impressed and he probably sold a ton of $297 courses .
I have 300k+ personal influencer account on IG and got verified around beginning of the the year without paying for it.
I can’t say that I saw a positive effect regarding more and/or better brand deals. I don’t think brands look specifically for it. If your audience and engagement is good and the brand likes your style/kind of content it doesn’t really matter much in my opinion. It might give the whole account the last touch and every influencer wants to get it, but only because it’s hard to get and sets you apart within the influencer community.
In the end it’s more a dig enlargement within the influencer niche
So like some of the verification sellers on SWAPD has been seeing me in there DM’s i’ve been telling them that we ca do business through this this is why here is my own view
For example in my country (Rwanda) 80% of celebs are’nt verified and yet they are getting all those great deals which means that the one’s with verification badges gets almost everything coz brands love that blue badge i think lol
so on my opinion is that it’s worth the investment based on where your located at
Ill keep it short.
Verified accounts get suggested more
Insta algo favors them
Upload quality is better
And the most important
If you are selling products people instantly trust you.
So yes it is worth…if you know what to do with it.
It’s nice and worth for Influencers tbh.
Musicians and athlethes are pretty to get verified and they shoudlt spend a $ for it. It does surely increase the engagement/Follow rate of yours as well as prices for promo.
So if you know what you are doing it might be worth it.
(business personal brand blue checks are a no-brainer tbh)
I’m not sure if @austinlawson’s direct question has been answered yet. Is it worth it? Worth what? There are sellers on here selling “verification plus press” for $10,000 and more. How many brand deals do you need to get to make that amount of money “worth it”? And I can tell you that most little accounts in the current market aren’t going to get paid $10k for a brand deal any time soon. Does that mean that the sellers of these services are profiteering off our vanity? Probably. But something is only worth what someone is willing to pay. @SWAPD out of interest, how much do you think verification is “worth” to the average person in a dollar amount?
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