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Twitter Verification Was Only For Early Birds

April 12, 2011
Emerging_Technologies|Customer-Centric_Delivery_Channels
 The Financial Brand tracks the use of Twitter (and other social media) by financial firms worldwide. As more firms began to utilize Twitter, their own corporate reputations needed to be protected from unauthorized Twitter impostors. Twitter responded with what is now described as a "beta" version of Verification, a process that allows Twitter to confirm who owns the account, and badge the home page to that effect. The Verification process was suspended in September of 2010, leaving those corporations who had not already Verified their own pages with no Twitter-supported alternative.

Now The Financial Brand gives us an update:

"About a year ago, Twitter opened its verification process to everyone, but by late 2010 the public program had been abruptly and mysteriously axed. And yet recently, in the month of February, both Charlie Sheen and Howard Stern got their accounts verified within days of joining Twitter — even Stern’s limo driver bears the badge."

"The Financial Brand culled through the list of Twitter’s 7,557 verified accounts and found among them a total of 26 banks and one credit union."

Twitter does suggest a work-around for still-unverified firms, suggesting that their Twitter home page be linked back to their parent Web site, and that the Web site should then contain links back to legitimate, authorized Twitter IDs. That certainly seems like the hard way for financial firms, and the absence of "Verified" badges on some Twitter accounts will unsettle customers.

Click here to read more.  

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