Elon Musk’s ill-fated Twitter takeover has been the subject of much controversy. It’s been one incident after another, with the SpaceX owner eager to make changes in an attempt to recoup the platform’s faltering revenue.
The Twitter Blue saga rumbled on for months, with the value and legitimacy of the blue checkmarks hotly contested by critics and supporters.
Just as the furore around the blue checkmarks seemed to be dying down, Musk introduced something new – the gold checkmark.
Previously, blue ticks were only granted to users who were notable in some way, such as celebrities, politicians, and brands. Now, anyone can buy a blue tick, so there needs to be some way of differentiating between real accounts and imposters.
This is where the gold checkmark comes in. These can be used by companies to identify their account as belonging to a brand, or a ‘Verified Organization’ as Twitter puts it.
These companies will get a gold tick next to their handle, while employees of that organization will be identified as such on their profile.
After an initial trial period, the feature is now being fully rolled out across a range of regions, including the US, UK, Australia, Japan, Germany, and Brazil.
So, what does the gold tick offer? Not a lot, it turns out. Brands with a blue tick won’t get much more than the standard Twitter Blue features, such as Tweet editing, a larger character limit, and fewer ads.
Twitter Blue incurs a cost of $8 a month, which was the cause of much backlash. However, this figure pales in comparison to the gold checkmark, which will cost brands a sizable sum of $1,000 a month.
Is it worth it? At first glance, it would seem not. However, brands need some way of verifying their identity on the platform, so this could become a necessary business expense.
