Is It Cringey to Pay for a Blue Check?

The monetization of the blue check on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook may be the latest controversial development in social media news, but it’s hard to be shocked by much these days. Years ago we were excited to hear about the extensions of character limits in a single tweet. Now, it’s impossible to guess what’s coming next, and every day seems to bring something new. The most recent update around verification subscriptions is giving users whiplash: Should you do it, or should you skip it? And is it cringey to have a “verified” status when people think you may have paid for it?

Across social media platforms, the role of the blue check has historically signified that someone has been confirmed as an actual person. In a world where bots abound, there is some factual weight to verification. But there’s also an ambiguous social clout that’s placed on being verified.

A brief timeline of verification

While social media was a thing even before the arrival of the iPhone (remember Friendster?), there wasn’t a verification system on major platforms until 2009. Twitter was the first social platform to introduce the concept following a lawsuit from Tony La Russa, the then manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, who sued the company after someone created an account impersonating him. It only took a month for the site to offer a preview of the process that would help protect celebrities and other high-profile users from impersonation. In July of that year, the feature rolled out officially and it wasn’t available for public application until July 2016. In 2012, Facebook introduced its own verification process, followed by Instagram in 2014.

You can probably guess what happened next: Everyone requested verification. On Twitter, the request portal was only open for two months before being shut down in September 2016 due to overwhelmed resources. Throughout the years, there have been blips in the verification process, namely in the form of dangerous and problematic individuals slipping through the cracks and gaining the blue checkmark. In May 2021, the platform allowed the public to request verification again, under more specific parameters. And that brings us to the most recent development: In November 2022, Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, announced that a new paid model, called Twitter Blue, was coming.

So what are Twitter Blue and Meta Verified?

Let’s start with Twitter Blue. There are a couple of levels to the verification program. To have the blue checkmark appear next to your name, you can pay $8 a month or $84 a year. In addition to verification, the Twitter Blue FAQ page shares that these members will also have early access to new feature previews before anyone else. A recent announcement from Musk also shares that as of April 15, 2023, the “For You” feed recommendations will be fueled by tweets from Twitter Blue subscribers. It’s worth noting that new Twitter accounts will have to wait 30 days after account creation to sign up for this option.

In addition to feature previews, there is a suite of special functionalities currently available only to Twitter Blue subscribers: tweet editing options like “undo tweet,” a Top Articles shortcut, a special Spaces tab, custom navigation, fewer ads (about 50 percent less), the ability to write longer tweets (up to 4,000 characters), access to bookmark folders for easier tweet organization, custom app icons, the option to add an NFT profile picture, access to Twitter Blue themes, and more. 

There is also a second level of verification for major organizations (like The New York Times, which lost its verification badge when the new program rolled out). For $1,000 a month, companies can join the Verified Organizations Service, which will buy the account a gold verification badge and an affiliate badge for affiliated accounts. Whew, that’s a lot of badges.

Now Facebook and Instagram are exploring a similar paid verification program, called Meta Verified. In addition to increased account protection against impersonators, subscribers will also get direct support resources (you can assume this means fewer hoops to jump through to help fix any account issues) and access to exclusive features. The Meta Verified features are a little less exciting than Twitter Blue’s offerings, and include special stickers for Instagram Stories and Facebook Reels, as well as 100 “Stars” per month, which are meant to be given to content from creators you support. Meta Verified offers two types of subscriptions: For $14.99 a month, subscribers can choose to subscribe for Instagram or Facebook (iOS and Android)—you can also opt for both, but the $14.99 fee is only for one account on one platform. The other option is to pay $11.99 for verification on the Facebook website only, meaning subscription features will not be available on the app.

There is no word on whether or not being Meta Verified will get your content in front of more people, but buying in will likely flag something positive to the platform algorithms. And while these programs may seem to offer a lot of perks, keep in mind they may not be that useful for you. (There are what feels like a million functions offered on LinkedIn—a social platform created for growing a professional network—but do you use all of those? Probably not. )

Is it worth it?

That’s tough to answer. For Twitter Blue, there are a few factors that have lessened the potential impact of opting in: the back-and-forth decision-making of the company’s CEO, the very fact that you have to pay for it, and the wishy-washy rule around who gets handed the verification without paying. For the time being, when you click on the blue checkmark next to someone’s profile, this is the text that comes up: “This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account.” The “or” is the tricky part—there’s no way to tell if someone is paying for the verification or if Twitter has someone deemed the account worthy of retaining the status. 

The good part is that this does provide a layer of mystery that those paying for the subscription may lean on; for an undetermined amount of time, no one will truly know which bucket you fall into unless you tell them. There is less information out there around Meta Verified and how the badges will display, and the negative feelings that exist around Twitter’s paid verification seems to have leaked over to the Metaverse (just spend some time on—ironically—#MetaVerified Twitter, and you’ll see).

All of this in mind, we’ll still sitting here on the fence: Is opting in a good idea? We spoke with Rachel Karten, a social media consultant and writer of the newsletter Link in Bio, about the pros and cons of the new system.

“If you are a person using Twitter for business—talking about projects, networking with other designers, sharing work—it can be beneficial to get Twitter Blue,” she says. “The algorithm does seem to favor and give more reach to [those accounts].” But there is another side to it: “I don't think it’s a huge disadvantage to not opt in,” says Karten. “I’m personally sitting back to see how it all shakes out.” The same advice can be taken for Meta Verified: There’s no harm in seeing how it plays out, especially when the subscription isn’t as far along in the testing process as Twitter Blue.

The best way to answer this for your own situation is to consider the people you’re hoping to reach. Running a thriving social account takes a lot of time and effort, so before going all in on a single service, consider where your ideal audience spends time. “I’d focus on building your personal brand on platforms that you feel your customers or future customers currently engage with,” says Karten. “Right now, that’s likely Instagram and TikTok—both those platforms’ algorithms are really leaning into discovery right now, meaning there are lots of opportunities for growth and new fans.”