The Rise of Paid Social Media Verifications

We’re all on social media, that’s just a fact of the modern world. But recently, something new has become all the rage — paid social media verification. This is a process wherein people pay a fee to have their accounts verified by the social media platform they are using and (presumably) get greater reach for their content. For the sake of argument, lets just assume that the system can't be gamed and that everything work as the platform owners intended it to do.

Paid social media verification was started by Twitter after Elon Musk’s leveraged buyout forced it to decrease costs and increase revenue in order to remain viable; a desperation move triggered by a chaotic buyout process and an even more chaotic aftermath which saw Twitters advertising customers abandon the platform and its workforce decimated (lets not get into the details of this here, but suffice it to say, it wasn't pretty). However, not to be outdone when a buck is to be made, Facebook soon followed suit with its own paid verification program.

Regardless of the specifics, I’d argue that both of these programs are desperation moves, especially when used by platforms where the revenue stream is based on selling ad space, thus essentially making you (the user!) the product. Allowing people to buy their way to the top of people’s news feeds and mentions, risks alienating the user base of these platforms. This may not seem much of a problem when you have hundreds of millions (or even billions) of users, but just as growth can compound, so can decline.

At the end of the day, what it comes down to is that paid social media verification schemes are a cash grab. While Twitter’s move was probably born from desperation after the chaos which ensued after its acquisition, the fact that Facebook jumped on this train seems to indicate a good amount of desperation (or at least disappointment following it's fizzled out 'Meta' rebranding), but also a thorough misjudgment concerning its user base and the fundamental reason they're on Facebook in the first place.

Let me explain: While much of Twitter’s content is at least partially entertaining, it is a platform where all content is open, and it allows you to quickly assemble a newsfeed that aligns with your interests and gets updates in real-time. In such an environment, paid verification can make sense, because people consume real news and we all know that fake news can be (and has become) a problem: you don’t want an impersonator of a major news source spread the (fake) news that some dictator with an inferiority complex has launched all of their ICBMs, thereby unleashing world war 3.

Compare this to Facebook: everyone I know uses Facebook to connect with friends and see what they’re up to. Your network is comprised of people you know, people you have met in real life or have at least had some sort of interaction with. No one I know uses Facebook to follow politics, news, etc. Those might show up in your feed every once in a while, but they’re not the primary reason why you’re using Facebook. And don’t get me started about ads. You’re not on Facebook to view ads, you accept them because that is part of the unwritten contract you have with the platform. Given this, there is absolutely no value to paid verification on a platform where you basically interact with people you actually know. Why Facebook would think otherwise is a mystery to me. At the end of the day, paid social media verifications on Facebook is a cash grab with limited benefit for most users. Add to this the fact that over the past few years Facebook seems to have seen declining user engagement and now on some days resembles a platform where there are more ads than actual real content, the value proposition for paid verification is doubtful at best. So, it remains to be seen whether paid social media verification will actually take off or become an abandoned money grab. If I had to guess, my money would be on the latter, especially so in Facebooks case.

Then again, I might be completely wrong in how I look at this, it wouldn't be the first time and it won't be the last time. Time will tell ...