Facebook is getting into the the account verification business this week. Now, you can currently verify your account on your own by giving a phone number, but this new verification is a little different. It’s essentially a copy of Twitters verification system, where popular public figures who may be impersonated are given a check mark to establish their credibility. Lets take a look at the details and what it may mean for your business social media.
Verified accounts will be given a blue check mark, like the one on President Obama’s page above. The blue check will also show up in the search results on Facebook, so you know which result is verified and which results are fakes. Currently, you can’t request to have your account verified. Facebook is going through all the biggest names and most impersonated personalities and companies to secure them. Once this is completed, we’re hoping it will become open to the public through some automated means, but Facebook isn’t saying yet.
“I think that it’s an issue for a lot of the luxury brands,” said Raina Penchansky, chief strategy officer for Digital Brand Architects. “Social and digital is a difficult space for luxury brands,” because luxury brands prefer to maintain an aura of exclusivity by limiting their exposure and access to larger untargeted audiences, she added.
If you want to be verified, there isn’t a lot you can do about it currently. If you’re not being imitated, you’ll be okay. If you are being imitated, you can report it through their help center and they’ll either delete the other account or verify you up. In the long run it may be a detriment to have a brand that isn’t verified on Facebook, but currently it’s not an issue. Just make sure you do a little search every once in awhile to make sure you don’t have any doppelgangers out there.