You’ve been slaving away for months perfecting your feed, working on an engaging DP/bio combination, and you’ve even managed to get the first bunch of followers. Now the next thing you’re dying to know is how to get verified on Instagram…so you can brag to all your Instagram-loving friends about how cool it is to get verified. And we must admit, it feels pretty darn great to see that blue tick beside your Instagram username (and for your own sake, PLEASE don’t use a tacky blue tick emoji beside your name).
Getting verified is almost always a Herculean task. Let’s first see what being verified on Instagram means!
It’ll take a mammoth effort to get verified on Instagram, but it is a coveted status symbol on any social media platform. It’s a seal of approval that an account is real. It’s also a shortcut for getting your post seen and plays directly into the way newsfeed algorithms work.
Perhaps as importantly, it’s a sign of trust. A verified tick on social media suggests that the handle is genuine. Identifying genuineness becomes a challenge in a virtual space, and the blue tick is the best way of doing so. This makes the tick of utmost importance to handles marketing products on Instagram. This is because online buyers are often sceptical due to the uncertainty created by scammers and identity thieves.
The fact that verified badges are rare highlights the effort needed to obtain one.
Another reason why you would want to get verified is so you can gain access to special perks. For example, for an unverified account, you would need at least 10,000 followers to gain access to swipe-up links on your Stories. Verified accounts don’t need to reach any such milestone. Swipe-up links can direct traffic to your website and are very valuable, so gaining access to this feature early is a big bonus.
What can you do to get Instagram verified?!
Full disclosure; getting a verification badge on Instagram is extremely rare, and Instagram is notoriously selective about who gets it. You might think you’ve done everything right, and put maximum effort into developing your handle, and still be denied a badge. The majority of blue checks on Instagram currently belong to celebrities or global brands.
In that case, there are more sure-fire ways to grow your handle. Skip to the last section of this blog to find out more! However, the Blue Tick is prestigious enough to take a shot at. First, let’s look at the official verification requirements for Instagram profiles; in order to be verified, your account needs to be:
- Authentic: The handle must represent a real person or organisation.
- Unique: The handle must represent a unique presence of the person or business. Only one account per person or business may be verified. General accounts, like meme pages, are not verified.
- Complete: The account must be public and have a bio, profile photo and be active. While Instagram does not state this explicitly, it also helps if you’re using the entire suite of Instagram’s features. Reels, Stories, IGTV; use them all to show your dedication to achieving Instagram growth.
- Notable: The handle must represent a well-known person or entity. Instagram reviews accounts with media features, excluding all paid content.
These guidelines provide a neat checklist to be ticked off before sending your verification request to Instagram. However, there are a few more ways you can increase your chances of getting verified!
1. Establishing a strong following
Before you ask, you shouldn’t buy followers at any cost, if you hope to get verified. If Instagram hasn’t penalized you before, they WILL do so when they review your handle for verification.
Work on getting real followers for your Instagram profiles. Post content no one else is posting. Post content that has value to your target audience. Interact with your followers and other handles. It’s organic actions like these that decide the long-term, sustainable growth of a handle.
Also, while it does help to have a strong following, it isn’t an absolute necessity. Shopify got verified when they had under 400 followers!
Of course, because Shopify is so well-known over the globe, a verification request from them is very likely to get a positive response. For smaller brands and influencers, a larger follower count will help their case when they wish to get verified on Instagram.
2. Building your brand on other mediums
Building your brand across multiple forms of communication is a powerful move, not only to get verified but for the general growth of your business. This ensures having a website with strong ranking potential, amongst other things like YouTube channels and Twitter accounts. Instagram will likely conduct thorough research before handing out a verification badge, and only being active and popular on Instagram may not suffice. Take an omnichannel perspective of building your brand, even if you are an influencer.
One of the best examples of a holistic, complete online marketing strategy can be seen with Nike. On all of their digital platforms, it is very evident that the brand focuses on people (mainly athletes) far more than products. This is unusual for a business selling physical products, but this strategy has allowed them to become the #1 sportswear brand in the industry.
3. Obtain media features to be more convincing
In some cases, it takes a lot more than a website, positive Google reviews and a Wikipedia page to believe your credibility. You also have to take an effort to gain press features that are in line with your content on Instagram.
For example, if your Instagram feed presents you as a global clothing retailer, you have to gain media features on websites from different regions. Just your national media won’t cut it, in this instance.
Also ensure you aren’t the subject of any negative publicity, as this really takes away from your trustworthiness and credibility. This will certainly decrease your chances of getting verified.
4. Staying active on the Gram
When assessing a verification request, Instagram will consider your level of activity with the handle. Whether it’s posting original content, monitoring your followers’ reactions to your posts, or leading with your most engaging photo, it’s essential that you use the platform to engage with potential customers.
Ideally, you should also use the full suite of Instagram’s features like Stories, Reels, IG Live, Carousel Posts, as this indicates a genuine willingness to achieve growth on Instagram.
Most importantly, be consistent. If you push a post (regardless of its quality) and then disappear for a few days with no actions on the account, Instagram will likely not verify you. Be frequent and be consistent.
5. Actively looking out for impersonators
This might be used as something of a last resort, but you can request verification if your Instagram profile is at risk of being impersonated. External entities impersonating you could highlight the fact that your account has value, from which benefit can be derived by way of impersonation. A verification badge would play a huge role in preventing this identity theft, which makes Instagram more likely to hand you one.
Pro-tip: If your account is often impersonated, always tell Instagram about it so they can take action from their end. If you think this is not working, you can also request your followers to report the impersonating accounts. If you have a super-engaged following, a lot of them will gladly take out a couple of minutes to do so.
What you should steer clear of, if you want to get verified on Instagram
Getting verified is essentially a matter of how you grow your authority, trustworthiness and general online presence. However, there are some things you should positively steer clear of if you want a real shot at getting the coveted blue tick.
Don’t link to your other social media channels in your bio
While this intuitively seems like a great to direct Instagram users to a brand’s other profiles, it isn’t a great sight in Instagram’s eyes. Sure, it helps to build your profiles on other platforms as a sign of trust and consistency, but when on Instagram, focus on Instagram users.
Don’t break Instagram’s policies
We’ve mentioned this before, but it’s definitely worthy of another mention as it can completely ruin your Instagram marketing strategy and objectives. No action that’s out of the bounds of Instagram’s rules should be taken on your profile. If you’re committing to build a solid Instagram presence, take the time out to read through their terms and conditions, and Community Guidelines.
Perhaps most importantly, steer clear of offensive content, and don’t use automation software, or tools to increase likes and followers.
How you can push a verification request to Instagram
There are a few simple steps to Instagram’s verification process:
- Open settings when you’re logged in to the account
- Scroll till you see the “account” option
- Scrolling down will lead you to an option titled “Request Verification”
- Tap on it and fill out the subsequent application.
REMEMBER! Not getting Instagram verified is not the end of the world, and is definitely not an excuse to stop working on your account. Continue building your brand on Instagram and other channels and acquire a stronger following and reputation. You’ll always have more shots at verifying your account!
May the growth be with you ♥
To optimize your account, we recommend you try out Predis. It can help you improve your social media post creatives, captions and hashtags before you push them out, and these improvements are based on your own handle and audience (sounds like magic, but that’s artificial intelligence for you!). It also gives you powerful insights into your competitors’ content!
Let us know of any great Instagram bio ideas you may have, we’d love to hear from you! Share your opinions in the comment below or refer to the tips in the article. Also, don’t forget to check out this article on evaluating the content that works best for your handle!
