What does... "blue tick" actually mean?
In his column "What does... actually mean?", Benno Maggi looks at terms from the marketing and communications sector. This time he deals with the term "blue tick".
Have you ever wondered why there are people and institutions that have a tiny blue tick to the right of their profile on social media? Influencers, celebrities and large companies have them, for example. The former celebrate it like a crowning glory and show it off like others with their vintage cars or watches. The difference: you can't buy blue checkmarks. It simply means that the account is verified. This means that the account is legitimate and belongs to the person or company that it claims to be. So far so good, that would be all of us, except for a few lurkers or other miscreants on the net.
But why don't mere mortals also have a blue tick? It is only reserved for high-profile accounts, i.e. profiles of influencers, celebrities or global brands. Meta, Tiktok and X determine who is one of them.
Everyone knows Tiktok. These are the evil Chinese who spy on us while we endlessly scroll through videos. But who is Meta? It's not the mysterious higher level, the level that people like to refer to when they don't know what to do next. No, it's the company of that guy who still believes in the future of connection in the metaverse.
And what the hell is X? The platform of the madman who shot down the blue bird last year, and which nobody has known what to say about since then. With a paltry 250 thousand users, it may be a lightweight, but it is still of great importance because of a user that everyone knows and who may soon be ruling a world power again.
Private or blue - you can't have both
Meta, Tiktok and X therefore filter who of the 2.7 billion Facebook, 1.92 billion Tiktok and 1.33 billion Instagram users meets the following requirements. In order to be verified on social media, certain criteria must be met. The first criterion for Instagram, for example, is that the account must be public. It is therefore not possible to set a limit so that only those who are invited to see the posts can do so if a blue tick is being sought. But that is not enough. In addition to authenticity and completeness (profile picture, bio, website link), regularity (when posting and interacting with others) also counts.
You also need a certain number of followers, namely at least 10,000 on Instagram. Tiktok, on the other hand, does not care who follows you, as the number of followers is not decisive for verification. Instead, if a person or brand is of public interest - for example, by being mentioned in various news sources - a blue tick is also awarded.
So anyone who has applied for verification using an application form and waits a few days or weeks until he or she perhaps receives the blue tick can then rejoice. He or she is then admitted to the Olympics of social media.
Is it worth it? Yes, because a verified account gives you access to certain functions such as exclusive filters and analysis tools that can help you better understand target groups and gain more followers. So stop joking about people celebrating their blue tick like others celebrate their new electric Porsche.
It's better to make fun of why it's called a blue hook when the hook is actually white. Only the background is blue.
