4 years ago, Twitter ran into an issue with people attempting to impersonate celebrities, athletes and other powerful figures or companies. This lead Twitter to incorporate a new feature called “verified”. Public figures or corporations submit a small form of basic information for Twitter to review. Twitter is somewhat secretive on what the exact criteria are for getting verified, but they do state that the general public is not eligible to get verified.
Fast-forward 4 years to today, and Social Media giant Facebook has finally adopted the same approach to protect public figures from impersonators. Much like Twitter, Facebook is leaving much of the process unknown by not laying out the exact criteria for what qualifies to verify. Reports are the Facebook will automatically verify the biggest account (most followers) to immediately protect them from impersonators.
Last year, Facebook reports that over 83 million accounts are fake accounts that are either impersonating celebrities or used for advertising and marketing. That’s almost 10% of all Facebook accounts! One user pointed out that if you do a search for David Beckham, Facebook returns 18 different pages for the soccer star.
If you have a business that is beginning to take off in sales and Facebook likes, it might be a good idea to get your business verified on both Facebook and Twitter. Should someone create a fake account using your businesses name, it will not only steal users from your account, but it could pose a major PR problem. Contact Facebook and Twitter to see if your page qualifies for verification!
By Mike Fedotowsky