Paid verification and its impact on brand and influencer marketing

By Hayley Jones, Director of Social at The PHA Group

Meta has recently jumped on the paid verification bandwagon by introducing its own premium subscription, ‘Meta Verified’. After a successful trial in Australia and New Zealand, the offering has been rolled out in the US. Hayley Jones, Director of Social at The PHA Group explores the impact of this roll out on creators and brands and whether a paid-for subscription undermines the creativity and longevity of both.

Following Twitter Blue’s explosion onto the social media scene, the first of its kind under Elon Musk’s reign, many platforms such as Meta and Snapchat have had to go back to the drawing board to curate similar offerings for its audience. Similar to Twitter Blue, Meta Verified offers users a verified checkmark, an exclusive range of stickers, proactive account protection and dedicated account support.

Many argue that back in the day, earning the coveted check mark was a right of passage for content creators and brands. It was an exclusive way for creators to make their presence known on a platform and establish themselves as a stand-out personality in a sea of impersonation. However, with this new offering, is everyone a creator now? These new subscription offerings boast extra security and protection, which provides great peace of mind, the downside however, is that paid-for verification could dilute the importance of influencers and brands who have worked hard to earn their prestigious status.

From both a brand and creator perspective, years of dedicating content creation and community building could be in jeopardy. Building a content strategy and engaging with followers takes experience and numerous setbacks. Paid-for verification usually offers increased reach potential, that combined with constant algorithm updates could impact engagement levels of organic influencers and hinder the chances of influencers and brands standing out in the crowd.

On the flip side, these new chargeable offerings could present smaller creators and brands with a much-needed boost to help build a community in a saturated space. Consumers are looking for authenticity and trust on social media, therefore, this type of verification could give nano and micro influencers leveraging capacity as they are perceived as more influential over mega and celebrity influencers.

For brands looking to partner with influencers, although the blue check mark is an important consideration, more thought needs to be placed on how engaging the creator is within their niche. Active engagements, content quality and brand alignment should take precedence over other factors such as verification, as ultimately the more engagement and authenticity a creator exudes the higher the ROI.

In the current age of ‘de-influencing’, influencers are forced to push their creative boundaries. Now, with this added hoop to jump through, many will have to rethink their content strategy to reach their niche audiences. Speaking of carving a niche, with the likes of Meta, Twitter, YouTube and Snapchat offering premium subscriptions, it would be interesting to see if TikTok comes out with a similar offering. The short-form video app that built its name on promoting authentic content and harbouring an algorithm that boasts high reach capability, offers alternate monetisation opportunities such as cheaper ad rates where its competitors have failed.

Overall, it’s still early days to make overarching judgments on the impact of these different pay-for-play models. However, as more audiences look for authenticity from social media, it will give smaller creators the added push to achieve credibility but may also dilute the reach potential of those who have built a career by creating high-quality, engaging content to grow a loyal community.