New Instagram Features for Brands– Has Getting Verified Gotten Easier?

As a leading PR and social media marketing agency, we’re excited to read that Instagram has introduced several new functions for its globally popular photo sharing app. Of all the updates, the social media platform for the first time ever offers users and agencies representing public figures and brands an easier approval process to request and receive verification.

On Instagram, blue check marks are fairly rare, even among pretty big brands and public figures. They are generally given to extremely famous celebrities (Hello, Kim Kardashian!) and popular public figures and politicians like President Barack Obama. Getting verified on the platform has long been a lengthy process for brands and agencies representing brands. While no one quite knows what goes on behind the scenes of achieving a blue verification check mark, most profiles have had the best success by working with a PR and social media marketing agency like Savory PR.

For some brands, the process can be so stringent that it can cost thousands of dollars to receive the official verified status. As a boutique PR and digital marketing agency, we have worked with journalists and major brands to achieve verification. It is much easier to get approved for journalists since their identification and employment is easily verifiable by checking out the news organization their profile claims they work for. It gets a lot trickier for other “public figures” or “brands” who are not journalists or A List celebrities like Beyonce or J.Lo.

In order to get a great chance at getting your Instagram profile verified, our agency works with clients to conduct a profile audit and implement new updates to the kinds of content they are posting. Instagram is not interesting in verifying Meme accounts, regardless of how many millions of followers they have. In addition, every verification request through the Instagram app requires state/country identification that match the Instagram profile name and uploading Instagram photos. While no one except the insiders at Instagram know how the approval process works 100%, our team of social media strategists have worked hard in helping clients optimize their profiles and add credibility to their online brand (hello, positive press placement!) in an effort to achieve Instagram verification.

With the latest updates to Instagram, the process to apply is a bit easier and more transparent– but it is still important to work with a PR agency or social media consultant to optimize your Instagram account and online brand.  Currently, the option to request verification is live now in the iOS iPhone Instagram app, but hasn’t yet been released for Android Smartphone users.

If you’re curious if you might qualify to be verified, reach out to Savory PR for a Instagram Verification consultation, available this summer for only $399.

We will work with your brand or business to audit and optimize your Instagram account so that it better qualifies and meets all of the platform’s approval requirements. We will work with you to make sure your Instagram account qualifies as an authentic, unique, complete and notable profile as defined by Instagram. From there, we will work with our contacts at Instagram to process your verification request. To learn more information, please email us at Samantha@Savory-PR.com.