Facebook Launches Verified Pages and Profiles

The social network has finally taken a leaf out of Twitter’s book and launched verification for pages and profiles of public figures and celebrities. When viewing a verified profile, you will now see a little blue tick next to their name, both in search results and on the timeline itself. Facebook says:

“Some well-known public figures and Pages with large followings (ex: celebrities, journalists, government officials, popular brands and businesses) are verified by Facebook as having an authentic identity. You’ll see a blue badge next to their names. Hover over the blue badge on a verified profile or Page to learn more.”

Here’s how the blue badge looks on Facebook’s own page:

Similarly to Twitter, Facebook also states that users will not be able to request to have their page or profile verified. You can still report if you think you are being impersonated. More information about reporting a fake account can be found here. No detail has been supplied about the process by which Facebook will deem pages and profiles authentic.

This is yet another step by Facebook to become more of a source for information, updates and news, similarly to Twitter. Last year they launched the subscription feature which allows users to form a non-reciprocal link. For example a Facebook user could ‘follow’ a celebrity’s profile and receive their updates in their news feed but the celebrity would not receive the user’s updates. Anyone can turn on the ‘follow’ feature. Click here to turn on follow for your profile.

So far Facebook remains primarily a social network for connecting with people you actually know as well as ‘liking’ the pages of your favourite brands and companies. It will be interesting to see if this latest update encourages more celebrities and public figures onto Facebook and whether our relationship with the social network undergoes any changes.

Posted on 30th May 2013 by Stuart in Social Media

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