Twitter’s verified accounts

July 13th, 2009 Posted by Missie at 1:26 pm

Twitter’s next big thing is on it’s way. Although it’s in BETA phase, verified accounts is set to have a dramatic affect on twitter profiles, establishing authenticity with people who deal with impersonation or identity confusion on a regular basis.

What does it mean

The addition of the ‘Verified Accounts badge’  to a twitter profile, users will easily establish what twitter accounts are ‘real’ or authentic, taking the guess work out of determining if a twitter profile is a spammer, bot, or just a fanatical celebrity fan who’s started up a ‘non-official’ twitter profile. But with the addition on the “Verified Accounts badge’ to twitter profiles, it also doesn’t mean the twitter account is fake.

How does it work

 With this feature, you can easily see which accounts we know are ‘real’ and authentic. It mean twitter has been in contact with the account holder to ensure that person or identity is representing and verified that it is approved. But this also doesn’t mean that twitter verifies who exactly is writing the tweets.

Twitter is only verifying a small number of account to help with cases of mistake identity or impersonation. As stated, if a twitter account doesn’t have a “verified Account Badge’ it doesn’t mean the account is fake, yet twitter doesn’t have the capacity to check the millions of accounts currently tweeting.

It’s easy to spot a verified account. The ‘Verified Account badge’ is located at the very top of the side bar in a twitter account. If the verified account badge appears anywhere else on a user’s profile page (e.g. in the avatar or the background) it is not a verified account. It’s easy to spot a verified account in the ‘Find People’ section of twitter as it will appear next to their usernames.

Who get’s a ‘badge’

Twitter is starting of verifying well known accounts that have had problems with impersonation or identity confusions such as popular musicians, celebrities, government officials and agencies and public figures. Twitter is yet to announce if the verified accounts will be spread across all account currently active. Due to the cost and tim required to verify accounts, only a small number are being tested.

Businesses are yet to be included in the testing for this new feature. However, twitter have opened the door for businesses to submit their interest through a feedback form.

See what a Verified Account BETA looks like!

Have you had any experience or know an account that’s verified? Let us know below.

More twitter resources and articles on tweeterland - the best twitter mashups , twitter research tools, twitetiquette, twitter tips for businesses, adding your phone number to twitter.