The blue check used to mean something.
A Blue Check Used to Mean Something
Once upon a time, you had to amass a large following and share something worth while to get recognized on social media. Ease of anonymity, and the ability for trolls to sound like a popular social media-lite, prompted social networks to verify popular accounts. Social media followers could Tweet, post, and snap with ease knowing the person they followed was who they said they were by seeing the ‘Blue Check’ next to their name.
The Blue Check was something up and coming social media influencers, and knowledgeable but unknown business technologists wanted. 🙂 You see. Not everyone could get a Blue Check. First, you had to be someone. Then, you needed a large following. Otherwise, your data was worth more than giving you a Blue Check.
As a startup founder, venture money recipient, and public speaker, I tried to obtain a Blue Check and was told I needed to go back and get more followers. As someone who has a tenuous relationship with social networks, it’ll be hard as Hell for me to get more followers, so no dice.
Learning from Failure
Last week, Meta Facebook Instagram announced plans to offer their own pay-for-your-identity plan. After sitting back and watching Elon Musk stumble through his pay-for-Blue-Check money making scheme. In an era of being nickeled and dimed by other digital services, Meta is doing the same. Meta Verified will cost Blue Check wannabes $11.99 per month for the web, and $14.99 a month for iPhone. It’s available in Australia and New Zealand this week. In addition to personal verification, the monthly payments help account holders boost their posts and get easier access to customer service.
We all famously saw Twitter Blue’s verification service gamed by abusers who impersonated celebrities, politicians, and Elon Musk. That fiasco caused Elon Musk to pause Blue’s rollout and fix the kinks. Meta says that account holders’ usernames and profile pictures must match the information on government issued IDs.
The End of Free Social Media as We Know It
Twitter and Facebook are seeking new sources of revenue after overestimating their pandemic popularity. All online service traffic has waned after people began returning to real life. The increased traffic and eyeballs witnessed during the pandemic have fallen and the bills from overspending are coming due. Facebook laid off 11,000 workers since the height of the pandemic.
Ad dollars are harder to come by as an abundance of inventory has made CPM chasing a tough business for digital marketers. Twitter and Facebook are forced to find new revenue streams or shrink. I’m interested in seeing how many people sign up for monthly ID verification.
Either way. The online media market place is maturing, and the free era is over. These networks need to figure out ways to keep their servers online. I’m not sure if ID verification is a must have for people to pay for, but we’ll see.