How to get verified on Instagram is a question that hundreds of thousands of internet marketers ask Josh Ryan every day. The concept behind Instagram is simple, drive large amounts of traffic to your website, and earn money from people posting pictures of their products or themselves. It’s easy to think that your business could make a killing on Instagram and make the same money as social networking giant Facebook. Still, most small businesses have a tough time getting anywhere on Instagram. So what’s the problem?
The difficulty in getting verified on Instagram stems from the way Instagram handles community guidelines. While every account is different, the general guidelines generally apply to all users, yet many business owners post images from one particular product over several accounts. As these images gain popularity, they generate an avalanche of spam filtered spam content, such as paying for ads, which ultimately discourages potential customers. Because Instagram has one of the most efficient online search engines available, one would think that it should be easier to gain verified access, yet the process is anything but simple.
Most big Instagram names have at least one profile that displays their brand, and a large portion of users begin by searching through their profiles to see if their company has published any official content. Unfortunately, the search results pages are rarely search engine optimized (as they should be), and users are often met with a list of “public figures” and commercial brands. While some smaller companies might manage this at some point, it usually means that the user is being met with random images from a collection of paid-for ads. This isn’t an effective way for smaller businesses to gain verified access to the popular social network.
The way around this is simple, but many businesses aren’t aware of it. By using an authentic account as a way to gain verified access, a business can ensure that their posts are truly representative of their brand and will feature an image of their brand or logo. There are a few different methods of using these accounts to gain access to the right brand. Many large influencers will provide an account just for followers and provide a brief description of what the brand is all about. If a company has an official account, they may consider taking advantage of the influencer’s popularity and offering them a “useful” link back to their website, or they may consider paying the influencer a small amount of money in order to gain access to the account.
Smaller accounts, however, have one major advantage over their larger counterparts: they have very little room to customize. When creating a profile or linking back to a website, the user is limited to a short description of the brand and a generic photo. This limits what types of images or content can be featured, as well as the quality of the content. Instagram does not offer a lot of customization, which makes it difficult for a company to upload original materials and gain verified access to their page. Most businesses choose to upload photos that have been professionally shot and will typically gain access to more options when applying for verification.
Learning how to get verified on Instagram involves six steps that should be taken in order to ensure the best chance at success. The first step towards gaining verified privileges on Instagram is by making sure that their account is well-known. A company should not choose a name based off of random choices, as this will most likely result in the account being removed from search results. Social media users will generally search for a brand before actually finding the content they are looking for, so if a company wants to be seen on the platform as a credible authority, it will be important to find a name that is as well-known as possible. For this task, companies should consult with agencies that specialize in naming companies and researching popular brands as well as brands that have recently been acquired.
The second step towards obtaining the necessary verification is to create a professional-looking profile. One way to do this is to fill out the required information on an official website dedicated to the company, and then update all of the profiles listed with the proper information. In addition to this, a new profile should be submitted on a regular basis, especially after gaining the first few followers. This is because the Instagram community guidelines state that accounts that show little to no activity in a seven-day period will be removed from the platform and users will not be able to re-authenticate a company through the use of their profile.
The third step towards gaining verified privileges on Instagram is to ensure that all of one’s images are properly labeled. The “Bot Account” feature in Instagram’s interface allows users to label images to provide a clear insight into who owns the image. While some brands choose to leave their identities anonymous, it is recommended that individuals learn as much as possible about a brand and label their images accordingly. Some businesses choose to add a photograph of their team to make their page more authentic and valuable to their followers. In contrast, others choose to keep their identity anonymous to protect confidential business information better. Regardless of the chosen method, it is important to ensure that all engagement-themed content is appropriately labeled. It is also important to update all tagging on all images to ensure that a new set of eyes sees all upcoming content.