Kenyan Companies To Spend Ksh137K To Be Verified On Twitter From April 1

Social media platform, Twitter, will from Saturday, April 1 revoke legacy blue checkmarks from accounts that had them on the platform, which means users who have been having the blue tick for free will have to pay per month to keep their status.

Despite the significance of the day the Elon Musk-owned platform chose for the revocation, being April Fools' Day, the move has been rumoured to happen for some time, with Musk tweeting in December that the company would remove those checks “in a few months” because “the way in which they were given out was corrupt and nonsensical.”

"On April 1st, we will begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks," Twitter stated on Friday, March 24.

This, therefore, means that the blue tick will be available to users who have only paid for it under its Twitter Blue platform, with the checkmark only visible on eligible profiles after a review to ensure subscribed accounts meet all eligibility criteria.

An image of gold checkmarks on Twitter accounts. /TWITTER

Kenyan users have been applying to possess the checkmark as well as the special features that come with it, aimed at improving one's Twitter experience. All one needs to do is pay Ksh1,419 every month or Ksh14,830 every year.

The charges are however higher for Kenyan companies, with organizations and businesses required to pay Ksh131,300 per month plus another Ksh6,570 per month for affiliated accounts like customer care or employees' accounts. This means that companies would have to spend Ksh137,870 in total to maintain their verified status shown as a 'gold' tick.

Twitter Verified Organizations (How It Works)

Twitter Verified Organizations enables organizations of all types; businesses, non-profits, and government institutions, to sign up and manage their verification and to affiliate and verify any related account. 

Any organization that purchases a subscription to Verified Organizations will receive a gold checkmark and square avatar if they are a business or non-profit, or a grey checkmark and circular avatar if they are a governmental or multilateral organization.

In addition, organizations can choose to affiliate with any individual or entity associated with them. An affiliated account receives verification (denoted by either a blue, gold, or grey checkmark) as well as an affiliate badge, a small image of their parent company's profile picture, displayed next to their checkmark.

Clicking or pressing this badge takes a user directly to the affiliated organization, making it a great driver of followers from their whole network on Twitter. For example, a company can affiliate their leadership, brands, support handles, employees or teams whereas a government can affiliate its precincts, officials, or other entities.

There is no limit to the number of affiliates an organization can have, or who they can affiliate (as long as they are related).

By subscribing, organizations can access Twitter's new tool to manage verification, meaning a user has full control over their organization's presence on Twitter. One will be able to add and remove affiliated accounts at any time but affiliates must accept an invite and double opt-in in order to receive verification. 

Twitter Verified Organizations elevates and distinguishes organizations and their affiliates on Twitter. Gold and grey checkmarks, square avatars, and custom affiliation badges verify and differentiate a user and his or her entity's main account, spokespeople and subsidiary accounts.

"We’re launching an entirely new feature on Twitter that lets any Verified Organization sign up, manage their billing, and verify their network.

"The Twitter Verified Organization portal lets organizations add and remove affiliated accounts and provides immediate verification status to anyone in their network who accepts their invitation to an affiliate. This could be for new employees, a newly launched movie franchise, or recent team changes for professional sports groups," Twitter explains in part.

Affiliations

The best marketing comes directly from real people on Twitter, with users able to affiliate with their organization’s champions so that everyone knows where they work.

Affiliates receive a small image of their organization's Twitter account profile picture next to their name every time they Tweet, send a DM or appear in a search. 

"You can affiliate anyone who represents or is associated with your organization: leadership, journalists, sports teams and players, politicians, customer support, franchises, sub-brands, products and so on. An account you invite to an affiliate must accept your invitation," Twitter adds.

Custom Organization Profile

Verified Organizations receive a number of customizations to their profile. In addition to gold checkmarks, businesses also receive a square avatar, clearly distinguishing them from other organizations.

All Verified Organizations accounts also receive a new tab on their profile that lists all affiliated accounts. This appears next to the Tweets tab and displays any affiliated accounts.

A screenshot of the new Twitter Blue feature. /TWITTER

With affiliation badges and the affiliation tab, this makes it easy for visitors to click on the badge of an affiliate, arrive at the organization’s profile, and see all the other affiliated accounts in one place.

Twitter Blue

All accounts (organizations and their affiliates) subscribed to Verified Organizations will receive all the benefits of Twitter Blue, meaning one will get access to features like Edit Tweet, Bookmark Folders, Longer Tweets, Prioritized rankings in conversations, and Half ads.

Criteria for eligibility

• An organization must provide a matching active Twitter account, current organization email address, and current website domain when they sign up.
• An organization must have access to and manage the matching active account they wish to verify. You will be required to authenticate your account when you activate your new subscription.
• You may be asked to provide additional details.