- Instagram began allowing users to request verification on its platform in 2018.
- Some say the blue checkmark adds clout and legitimacy. Others say it doesn't matter.
- We spoke to two influencers and bloggers, Monica Awe-Etuk and Helene Sula, about how verification has affected them.
- Awe-Etuk and Sula both said verification has helped them gain more exposure on Instagram, but influencer marketing experts are conflicted over whether it has a tangible impact on brand deals.
- Click here for more BI Prime stories.
In September of 2019, YouTube announced that it would be making it harder for creators to become verified on its platform and taking verification badges away from thousands of individuals. But the company received so much backlash for its decision that it decided to reverse course almost immediately.
The response proved that social media verification matters for creators. Whereas YouTube has allowed individuals to apply for verification for years, Instagram only began permitting requests for verification through its platform in 2018. Before that point, the platform did award blue checkmarks to certain celebrities and brands.
"The original purpose was really to prevent copycats," Misty Gant, who serves as senior vice president at the influencer marketing agency IMA and has worked on campaigns with brands including Nivea, Samsung, and Under Armor, told Business Insider. High-profile influencers, too, could become verified on Instagram before 2018 with the help of agencies like IMA. "If you worked at an influencer marketing agency and you wanted to help someone get verified, you had a contact at Instagram that you could reach out to," Gant said.
Why do influencers and creators want to be verified?
Monica Awe-Etuk, a fashion, beauty, and lifestyle blogger who joined Instagram in 2012 and now has just over 91,000 followers, became verified on Instagram a few months ago. She said she had requested verification multiple times since Instagram released the in-app tool.
"There were a couple of reasons I wanted verification," Awe-Etuk told Business Insider. "One was that you don't want other people to impersonate you, and that has been a little bit of an issue for me. But the other was that I felt like verification was that stamp of approval on what I had been doing and how this was my business."
Awe-Etuk also said she had heard that verification would help her market herself, as it would make her account "look legit." "If I'm pitching to talking to brands, I can say, 'Look, I've done all of this and I'm verified,'" she explained.
Helene Sula, a travel and lifestyle blogger who has over 150,000 followers and started posting on Instagram in 2012, said she applied for verification for similar reasons. She found that people were stealing her photos and creating Instagram accounts pretending to be her.
"I thought verification could offer me some sort of protection, indicating that this is my only account," she said. Sula also saw verification as "Instagram nodding to what I was doing, saying you're doing good work and saying this is something that's being seen in the public eye." After applying for verification multiple times, Sula received her blue checkmark approximately five months ago.
Do brands actually care?
"I definitely think brands have taken note," Sula said. "It's probably increased tenfold as far as brands reaching out and wanting to work with me."
Not only are more brands reaching out to her, but she also said that the quality of the collaboration offers she's receiving has increased. "Before, I was getting things like, 'Try this toothpaste' or 'We can send you a book.' And although that's fine and yes I can use them, that's not necessarily something that I'm going to talk about or that my followers would be really interested in," she explained.
Now, brands that she already discusses in her posts are noticing her. "The other day, I talked about a skincare item that I use, and I actually had the skincare brand reach out to me and send me a box of the items," Sula said. She had spoken about the brand multiple times in the past before she was verified and nothing had occurred. "Between when I posted about them before and when I posted them now, there's not been that significant of a change for me other than me being verified," she added.
Sula does think she's been offered a bit more money in deals since she's become verified. "I would say the rate appears to be at least 10% higher," she said. She believes verification has also given her more negotiation power. "Most of the time the rate is negotiated and I always ask for more than the first offer. Now, those [requests] seem to be more seriously taken," she said.
However, some remain skeptical about whether verification actually has a real effect on brand deals. Awe-Etuk said it's hard for her to tell whether verification has affected her business because she received the blue checkmark so recently.
Mae Karwowski, the founder of the influencer marketing agency Obviously, which has worked on influencer campaigns with Lyft, Google, and Coca-Cola, said that the significance of verification partially relates to the size of the influencer. "With the smaller influencers we work with, it doesn't make a difference," she said. Brands understand that it's difficult for these influencers to obtain a blue checkmark, so it's not something they expect to see when determining whether to hire the influencer for a campaign.
"But I think that if you're an influencer with several hundred thousand followers, brands are going to be looking for verification and they care a little bit more that you're verified," she said. For these larger influencers, it's becoming more of an expectation that they will have applied for verification, and the lack of a checkmark may be a red flag for companies. That said, influencer marketing agencies do their own internal checks on the authenticity of an influencer's following for brands.
Instagram's algorithm favors verification, leading to more exposure
"When you're searching, the Instagram algorithm will prioritize verified accounts over non-verified accounts," Karwowski told Business Insider. "So you're going to have more exposure than if you are not verified."
Awe-Etuk added that now that she's verified, "people are paying a bit more attention to me. When I would go on the explore page and look on other people's stories, some would reach out to me and say, 'No one that's verified has ever checked out my story.'"
Comments from verified accounts also have a higher chance of ranking higher under posts. "I made a comment recently, and Khloe Kardashian chimed in. Nothing like that ever happened before I was verified," Awe-Etuk said. Sula also told Business Insider that the engagement she receives on comments has "absolutely increased."
How can you get verified?
Instagram says it considers four criteria when evaluating a request for verification: authenticity, uniqueness, completeness, and notability. To be verified, an account must represent a real person or business and typically must be the only account representing that person or business. The account also must be public and include a bio, profile picture, and at least one post. The last requirement for Instagram verification, and the one that prevents most people from becoming verified, is "notability."
"The account must represent a well-known, highly searched for individual, brand, or entity," a Facebook spokesperson told Business Insider.
Sula advised influencers hoping to become verified to get larger publications to back you up. "You can start small, say with a local newspaper or a podcast. But certainly put your name out in the public eye," she said.
Awe-Etuk also believes that features in media played a role in Instagram's decision to verify her account. "Tag the brands you want to be noticed by on Instagram. Reach out to magazines. Get your content featured in magazines and other publications," she said. "That will help elevate your brand in general."
Still, it's largely in Instagram's hands whether or not someone will receive that coveted blue checkmark.
Verification may start to matter less as engagement and impressions become more valuable
Verification has faced criticism in the past for not functioning properly. Notable journalist Taylor Lorenz, for example, wrote in The Atlantic in June 2019 about widespread verification scams, wherein hacked or fake accounts promise users verification in exchange for money.
And Gant believes that it doesn't matter as much as it used to.
"Instagram traditionally released the verification tool as a way to verify celebrities and brands. So it set you apart if you were verified," she explained. "But since then, it's kind of become this tool where anybody can get verified, and its importance is really reducing in terms of influencers. We don't really treat verified influencers differently than non-verified influencers when we're casting for our campaigns. Content is king."
And she sees the importance of verification diminishing further in the future. "Some of the original influencers who are verified have lower impression and engagement rates than some of these new up and coming influencers who are not verified," she said.
TikTok stars like @markanastasio and @addisoneasterling, for example, aren't verified on Instagram but have extremely high engagement rates, sitting at around 20% or higher. This level of engagement is a stronger pull for potential sponsors than a blue checkmark.
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns explains why country music is universal
Visit dearJulius.com to get free premium content for all of your lifestyle needs.
COMMENTS