Facebook Launches Verified Accounts for Brands, Businesses, Public Figures

Facebook is getting into the verification business, borrowing a feature that Twitter first introduced approximately four years ago.

Facebook’s verification badges for pages and profiles will also mimic Twitter by leaving much of the process unknown and internal.

It’s unclear why Facebook is making the move to confirm brands and well-known figures with large audiences on the site but it plans to start the proactive process over the coming days. The company will “automatically verify the largest pages on Facebook that are at the greatest risk of duplication,” said a Facebook spokeswoman.

“Verified pages fit in to a small group of prominent public figures (celebrities, journalists, government officials, popular brands and businesses) with large audiences,” the site notes in a blog post announcing the news.

“I think that it’s a concern for a lot of the luxury brands,” said Raina Penchansky, chief strategy officer for Digital Brand Architects. “Social and digital is a difficult space for luxury brands,” because luxury brands prefer to preserve an aura of exclusivity by limiting their exposure and access to larger untargeted audiences, she added.

While verified pages and profiles will add some semblance of authenticity, brands aren’t precisely begging for the feature or avoiding Facebook because they don’t have a small blue badge and check mark next to their names throughout the site.

"I've never seen any pushback from a product,” Penchansky said. “It doesn't feel like something that's been a huge barrier for entry for our brands."

Still, she said, some brands might be a little uneasy about the random verification process, particularly since Facebook hasn’t outlined the requirements for verification or the ability to request a profile or page be verified.

The blue check mark identifying verified pages and profiles will 98come out in timelines, stories, search results, news feed ads and while users hover over the name of a page elsewhere on the site. Brands that don’t automatically receive verification over the coming weeks are being referred to Facebook’s help center where common duplication issues can be resolved.