It used to be almost impossible to get verified on Instagram previously – we heard rumours of people persuading their contacts at Instagram to get that coveted blue tick into their profile or even paying $$$ on the black market for someone to do it for them because there wasn’t really an easy way to request verification.
Thankfully, it’s much easier these days – well, it’s easier to request to be verified.
Head to Settings in your Instagram app, and scroll down to “Request Verification”
You’ll need to fill in a short form, and send a photo of your photo ID or business documentation to show that you own the name.
It’s useful to be verified because it shows that you have been confirmed as being the authentic owner of that account. Being verified helps new followers easily find your account and avoid fake profiles.
You’ll get a notification to show whether your request was approved or declined – however there is no time scale for this so just keep an eye on your notifications page.
Besides making sure that you follow Instagram’s Terms of Service and Community Guidelines (obviously!), to get verified, your account also should be…
- Authentic: The account must be for a real person, a business or entity. This is an interesting requirement, as we’ve seen lots of accounts lately (for example) of fans of a blogger and pet accounts. This requirement from Instagram sounds like these are unlikely to get verified unless they are their own unique business, but obviously, that’s down to Instagram to decide. They do state in a later requirement that they won’t verify accounts that are for “general interests” with the example of @puppymemes being used
- Unique: The account must be the only account for the person requesting verification. Again, this raises the question of accounts that we create for our pets or children – would they be denied verification?
- Complete: The account must be public, have a bio (although there is no requirement listed here to what counts as a bio), a profile photo and at least one post. The interesting requirement on this point was that your profile can not contain links to other social media services – we assume this means things like what your username is on other social media sites like Twitter or Snapchat.
- Notable: The account must represent someone who is known – otherwise what’s the point in there being a verification process?
If your request to be verified is denied, you can resubmit a new request after 30 days have passed.
Verified badges can be removed at any point and your account can even be deleted if Instagram decides you are going against their terms and conditions. They highlight things like selling your verification to someone else, using your profile to promote other services (which we again assume means things like putting your username on other social sites?) or attempting to verify your account via a third party.
Even if you don’t get verified, it’s a good idea to make sure that your link in your Instagram bio is kept up to date – perhaps using something like the guide over on our sister site, The Glasshouse, on how to create your own link page.
