How To Get Verified On Instagram?
Today I am going to show you exactly how you can get verified on Instagram even if you are not an A-list celebrity or a public figure.
Let’s explore about this subject.
Get Verified On Instagram – Step By Step Guide
I’m sure you’ve heard of verification before and you’ve may have seen accounts with that blue check next to their name.
And maybe you’ve wondered:
- What the heck it is? How did they get it?
- and how you can get one too?
So I’m gonna discuss all those things today and I’m gonna give you a step-by-step on how to get verified on Instagram and not just show you how to apply for it but the actual qualifications that Instagram is looking for and how you can make sure that you’re meeting them.
What is Instagram Verification?
Well, this feature is generally reserved for public figures, celebrities, well-known brands or people that have the possibility of being impersonated.
Instagram gives them out to basically say that this is the official account of this individual or brand or company but verification carries so much more authority than that.
When someone comes across your profile and if they see that your account have a blue check next to your name, they normally by default think that you have some sort of famous and people know you and obviously if you have a business or a brand. This is great for business.
Benefits Of Getting Verified On Instagram
Usually, When people see the blue check tick mark beside a name, they normally tend to give it more credibility and trust it more compared to a checkless name.
Having a verified Instagram account makes your account perceived as an authentic account which has an organic following, allowing people to find your official account and avoid the other imposters.
Since not everybody can get verified, by having a blue check mark, it makes your account look more exclusive and adds more power to the brand value.
It makes you feel more confident to share content through your account. People will trust your content and you more, and you can use that as leverage to grow and promote your brand or business or maybe contacts through other influencers too.
The other significant advantage of having that blue check near your name is that it proves that you are the only official account, which will significantly help you to filter out the fakes ones and reduce identity theft.
There are numbers of Countless fake pages and accounts that are impersonating big brands, celebs, companies. You don’t wanna be that person to call by mistake a phony account taking it as a real one.
But no need to wait for the Instagram fairy to bless you with that little blue check mark and No need to search for the market where you can actually purchase the verification (sadly yes, people do that!). Now, if you want to get verified, you too can apply for it.
Now, I want to teach you guys how exactly to get verified and how you can get verified too by applying this method.
Alright, so the first thing that you have to do is apply for verification through the Instagram mobile app.
So this feature is newly released just in the last year. In the past, Instagram didn’t allow you to request verification in the past They would simply just give it to the person that they thought deserved it.
But now you actually have a role in this and you can request to get verified.
So to do that go ahead and open up your Instagram profile then you’re gonna tap the three line icon on the top right also known as the hamburger icon.
And then you are going to hit the Settings button at the bottom of the screen.
From there you’re gonna scroll down until you see request verification and go ahead and tap that.
On this page where you’re going to read a little bit of information about verification and then you’re gonna have to fill out a couple of questions.
So the first question is what is your username? It’s already plugged in because you are logged in there but you want to put in the Instagram username that you want to be verified.
Then you’re gonna put in your full name, this should be your full name that would appear on a government piece of ID.
Okay because you’re gonna have to actually send that to them as well.
So check that it matches with it.
Then there’s a section to put what you’re known as.
If you are a business, you can put your brand name or your full name again.
Then you’re gonna want to choose a category, so pick the category that aligns the most with your brand and then lastly you’re gonna have to attach a picture of your photo ID.
So this is can be anything from the list below:
- Driver’s license (with name and D.O.B)
- Passport (with name and D.O.B)
- National ID Card (with name and D.O.B)
- Business tax filing
- Business utility bill
- The article of incorporation.
Basically, anything that is distributed to you by the government.
Okay, make sure that the photo you add is a clear photo of that so that they can read your name and see your picture. next, press sends and then you’ve completed the easiest step of applying for verification.
There is so much that goes into it, there is some stuff you need to take care of or criteria to get accepted than simply applying for it.
Instagram has a very strict set of rules that they look for when someone applies and if you don’t meet those criteria then you will be denied.
If you get denied you will receive a notification in your Instagram notification tabs that say that you didn’t meet the criteria and that you’ve been denied and you can reapply every thirty days.
On the other hand, if you are approved and then you will receive a notification in your notification tab as well that says the opposite that you’ve been approved and now you have a check mark on your account.
Fulfill These Criteria to Get Verified on Instagram
Your content must fall according to Instagram’s Community Terms of Service and Guidelines.
- Your account must be authentic meaning that you have to prove that you’re not a fake person but a real person. If you are a business, you have to prove that you are a legitimate business and a registered brand or a business. In other words, don’t lie simply let them know who you say you are.
- This is a sure way to not get verified if you do this. Make sure that your account is in public and viewable to everyone. If it is private, you will not get verified.
- Make sure that your bio is completely filled up with your details, whether by individuals or business or brands. Also, add a clear photo of yourself if you are an individual but if you are a brand, add a clear logo. I would recommend you to have some good amount of post or content uploaded and just to make it better and reduce the odds of failure, make sure it has some organic engagement too.
- If you have different language account, it is an exception bit other than that Instagram verified only one account per business/brand/individual. But if you have multiple languages, sure go ahead. Like as we have mentioned before, Instagram usually doesn’t verify a general interest accounts and some example of it includes those that aggregate funny videos, memes or pictures.
Authenticity
The first thing that Instagram looks for is authenticity in your account.
Okay, they want your account to be a real person a real business or an entity. Generally, they won’t approve of generic accounts like say a fan account for a celebrity. So you want to make sure that the account that you’re trying to get verified is authentic.
Unique Content
The next thing is how unique is your content?
Instagram wants to make sure that the content that you’re uploading is your own content and you own the rights to it.
Generally, they don’t verify reposting accounts or feature accounts but sometimes it did get approved but I believe that’s because they aced all of the other qualifications on this list.
So you do want to make sure that you are meeting all of these criteria as best as you can. However it does seem like they let a few accounts slip through the cracks, so maybe you’ll be lucky the next thing is.
Public Account
The Next criteria are your account must be public and complete.
So your account must be a public account to be verified on Instagram. If you have a private account you will not be approved ok and to be complete you have to have a filled out bio including a profile picture and a few posts on your account.
You need to have everything filled out in the edit your profile section.
Known Name Or Online Identity
So the last thing is notable your account needs to be notable and by that, they mean that you or your company or your business entity must be written about in well-known publications either in print or on the internet.
And I think the Internet is probably weighing higher here because it’s unlikely someone’s gonna is searching through magazines for your name.
So try to get featured on television, Cosmo, Time magazine, Business Insider, etc. Any reputable news or publication source will do.
When they search your name, plenty of online publications and news articles come up about you and that’s what I think is really gonna help you get approved.
Ok if you’ve never been talked about online then they don’t see you as notable enough, unfortunately so if that’s the one criteria that you’re missing I would recommend you to work on that.
Now keep in mind that they do state that any sort of paid promotions. So if you pay a company to write about you and they can somehow tell that, then that will not be valid and any online promotional stuff you do.
So say you pay for an ad of yours to be on business insider or time magazine, Forbes, etc that won’t count either as valid.
You need real organic news articles written about you or your brand.
I think this is probably gonna be the one feature that stumbles a lot of people but if you really want to be verified on Instagram, then you got to do something that’s going to get people talking about you and get you into the news.
If this is your stumbling block then I have a tip for you.
I would recommend you to search for articles that were written about Instagram accounts and when find out who wrote that article.
After you do, find them on Twitter or other methods of contacts and maybe send them a tweet and say “hey! I saw that you wrote an article about this account, maybe you would be interested in writing one about mine” and this strategy worked for some too which I personally know.
So go ahead and give that a try and maybe you’ll have your first news article published and that’s what’s gonna help you get there Verified on Instagram.
Again you need to meet this criterion and you need to be applying via the mobile app. You got to do it all and you got to do it regularly.
If you get denied you can do it again but you have to wait 30 days, so if you get denied don’t fret.
Just try again but make sure that you are working towards building up those criteria that they want because that’s what’s gonna give you the best option of actually getting verified on Instagram.
Conclusion
By this time, you should have a clear idea about how to get verified on Instagram.
If you have any further tips or thoughts about this post then do let us know in the comment section.