Hey guys, it's Alex Tooby here from alextooby.com and welcome back to my YouTube channel.
Today I'm going to teach you how to get verified on Instagram.
So I'm sure you've heard of verification before and you've seen accounts with that blue check
next to their name and maybe you've wondered one what the heck it is, how they got it,
and how you can get one too.
So I'm going to discuss all of those things today and I'm going to give you a step by
step on how to get verified on Instagram and not just show you how to apply for it, but
the actual qualifications that Instagram's looking for and how you can make sure that
you're meeting them.
So first of all, what is verification?
Well, this feature is generally reserved for public figures, celebrities, well known brands
or brands that have the possibility of being impersonated.
Instagram gives them out to basically say that this is the official account of this
company or person.
But verification carries so much more authority than that.
When someone sees that you have a blue check next to your name, they automatically think
that you have some sort of credibility that you're well known and obviously if you have
a business or a brand, this is great for that.
Now I was fortunate enough to have two of my Instagram accounts be verified in the last
year.
So I'm super excited about that.
And now of course I want to teach you guys how exactly I got verified and how you can
get verified too.
All right, so the first thing that you have to do is apply for verification through the
Instagram mobile app.
Okay, so this is a feature that is newly released in the last year.
They didn't actually allow you to request verification in the past.
They would simply just give it to the person that they thought deserved it.
But now we actually play a role in this and we can request to be verified.
So to do that, go ahead and open up your Instagram profile.
Then you're going to tap the three line icon on the top right, also known as the hamburger
icon.
And then you are going to hit the settings button at the bottom of the screen.
From there you're going to scroll down until you see request verification.
And go ahead and tap that.
On this page you're going to read a little bit of information about verification and
then you're going to have to fill out a couple of questions.
So the first question is what is your username?
It's already plugged in there, but you want to put in Instagram username that you want
to be verified.
Then you're going to put in your full name.
This should be your full name that would appear on a government piece of ID.
Okay?
Cause you're going to have to actually send that to them as well.
So you want to make sure that it matches.
Then there's a section to put what you're known as.
So if you have a brand name or a company name, you can put that there or you can just input
your full name again.
Then you're going to want to choose a category.
So pick the category that aligns the most with your brand.
Okay.
And then lastly, you're going to have to attach a picture of your photo ID, so this is going
to be your driver's license, a passport, a nationality card, basically anything that
is distributed to you by the government.
Okay, so you want to make sure you take a really clear photo of that so that they can
read your name and see your picture.
So at that point you just have to press send and then you've completed the easiest step
of applying for verification.
Now thing is is that there's so much more that goes into your verification being approved
than simply applying for it.
Instagram has a very strict set of rules that they look for when someone applies and if
you don't meet that criteria then you will be denied.
If you get denied, you will receive a notification in your Instagram notification tab that says
that you didn't meet the criteria and that you've been denied and you can reapply every
30 days.
If you are approved, then you will receive a notification in your notification tab as
well that says the opposite that you've been approved and now you have a check Mark on
your account.
The first thing that Instagram looks for is authenticity in your account.
Okay?
They want your account to be a real person, a real business or an entity.
Generally they won't approve of generic accounts like say a fan account for a celebrity.
So you want to make sure that the account that you're trying to get verified is authentic.
The next thing is unique.
Instagram wants to make sure that the content that you're uploading is your own content
and you own the rights to it.
Generally they don't verify, um, reposting accounts or feature accounts.
But my @menandcoffee account did get approved.
But I believe that's because I aced all of the other qualifications on this list.
So you do want to make sure that you are meeting all of this criteria as best as you can.
However, it does seem like they let a few accounts slip through the cracks.
So maybe you'll be lucky like I was.
The next thing is public and complete.
So your account must be a public account to be verified on Instagram.
If you have a private account, you will not be approved.
Okay?
And to be complete, you have to have a filled out bio including a profile picture and a
few posts on your account.
Okay?
You need to have everything filled out in the edit your profile section.
So the last thing is notable.
Your account needs to be notable and by that they mean that you or your company or your
business entity must be written about in well known publications, either in print or on
the internet.
And I think internet is probably weighing higher here because it's unlikely someone's
going to be searching through magazines for your name.
So for me, I was featured on television.
I was in Cosmo, I was on time, I was on business insider.
So if you search my name plenty of online publications, news articles come up about
me and that's what I think really helped me get approved.
Okay.
If you've never been talked about online, then they don't see you as notable enough
unfortunately.
So if that's the one criteria that you're missing, I would work on that.
Now keep in mind that they do state that any sort of paid promotions.
So if you pay a company to write about you and they can somehow tell that, then that
will not be valid.
And any online promotional stuff you do.
So say you pay for an ad of yours to be on business insider.com that won't count either.
So you need real organic news articles written about you or your brand.
So again, I think this is probably going to be the one feature that stumbles a lot of
people, but if you really want to be verified on Instagram, then you got to do something
that's going to get people talking about you and get you into the news.
Okay.
If this is your stumbling block, then I have a tip for you.
When I was trying to grow @menandcoffee, I would actually search for articles that were
written about Instagram accounts.
And when I found out who wrote that article, I would find them on Twitter, send them a
tweet and say, Hey, I saw that you wrote an article about this account.
Maybe you would be interested in writing one about mine, and it worked for me.
So go ahead and give that a try and maybe you'll have your first news article published
and that's what's going to help you get verified on Instagram.
So again, you need to meet this criteria and you need to be applying via the mobile app.
K you got to do it all and you got to do it regularly.
If you get denied, you can do it again, but you have to wait 30 days.
Okay?
So if you get denied, don't fret, just try again.
But make sure that you are working towards building up those criteria that they want
because that's what's going to give you the best option of actually getting verified on
Instagram.
I hope you enjoyed this video and that you learned something new today.
Please go ahead and click the videos on either side of me right now to watch something else
that I've created or go over to my website, alextooby.com and check out what I have to
offer there.
There's tons of free downloads, free courses, paid programs, and just unlimited amounts
of Instagram tips and tricks.
So thanks again for watching and I'll see you next time.
Bye.