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Twitter has launched “Blue for Business” to clarify which accounts are affiliated with companies and brands
“We are launching the Blue for Business pilot, so starting today you will see company badges on selected profiles. We will be expanding the program soon and look forward to adding more companies in the new year!” Twitter product manager Esther Crawford, announced in a Tweet (opens in new tab).
But with more badges appearing day by day, has Twitter verification become too confusing?
Twitter blue for business
The new launch means that some eligible companies will now be able to share their brand logo with employees and/or partners, which will appear next to their name (in a square shape) and any other verification attribute, for example the @TwitterSupport account, which is affiliated with the @Twitter account.
An article about the Twitter Business website (opens in new tab) explains that eligible accounts can be leadership members, support agents, employees, teams, and so on. Each affiliate is verified and linked to the parent account in a process where the company specifies who to include.
The Blue for Business pilot program is open to an undisclosed “select group” of companies, with a wider rollout planned for 2023.
Another recent change is that companies’ profile pictures have changed from the classic circle thumbnail to a square one, which Twitter hopes will make it easier for users to distinguish legitimate business accounts.
Twitter has yet to announce whether this will be a paid feature, as is the case with its latest round of blue verification checkmarks (known as Twitter Blue), which costs $8/£8 per month (or $11/£11 per month when a user signs in on an iOS device).
In summary, a blue check mark can mean either an outdated verified account or a paying Twitter Blue subscriber, while the gold check mark indicates a company (which will also benefit from a square profile picture). Gray checkmarks indicate certain profiles, such as governments and media houses, while a square company logo means the account is linked to a parent company account. Understood?