All these 15 strategies to get verified have to be SIMULTANEOUSLY applied. You can’t exclude ANY of them. This is a long read because it’s years of work behind this article so get a pen and paper and get to studying how to get the blue checkmark on most platforms in 2020. Also, since we’re giving you the scoop on how to do this on your own without charging you or annoying you with pop-ups, be kind enough to leave a comment, ok? Thank you and let’s begin. 😎
15. You must have OTHER people officially supporting your brand.
This goes for all industries but since we’re specialized in the music business, for artists and record labels this means you have to have other people singing your songs, dancers vibing to your tracks, DJs remixing your singles, YouTubers or TikTokers using your tunes as their background music, etc. How do you make it official though? By letting those other people post FIRST and you repost it SECOND. ‘Cause if you’re the one making the original post, it legit looks like you’ve paid that person to do it for you. Equally, when their handle is attached to the image and it is obvious it’s a repost, that solidifies their public support of your music, merch, brand.
14. You must show you exist OUTSIDE your house.
We get that we’re living weird times and we’re all limited in our movements, but fact-checkers don’t care. So we adjust. Your posts can not all be taken inside the same corner, room, car all the time. You have to expose yourself to the public. Ideal photos are taken in places where many other people have access to it. So if you’re an artist, you want to post images showing you in an official recording studio where other singers go to as well. You also want to show your presence in places like reputable venues, office rooms, hotels, famous gyms, airports, music schools, and colleges. All these locations show you’re constantly moving and evolving as a brand. Seriously. Even if you’re traveling for your best friend’s wedding, pop on a pair of brand headphones and write a caption along these lines: “I love writing songs while I’m on the road”. Who cares if you’re not exactly actually penning anything? no one. Who cares if “on the road” means literally moving and not traveling for business purposes? no one. So you might as well word your movements as to always push your brand.
13. You must have CONCLUDED campaigns or collaborations with other brands.
Concluded implies it’s been completed, aka from a few months back. Whether you’re in a cool outfit tagging all official brand accounts in that photo or it’s a video of you thanking some startup, the more collaborations you have with other companies, the more you’re seen as important. So how do you get a collab if you don’t know anyone willing to sponsor you? Get your friends involved. Everybody knows somebody who’s selling some merch. Make sure they’re present on the platform where you want to get the blue badge, ask them for a bundle deal, buy it with your own dollars, then go do a photoshoot sporting their merchandise. Truth is, everyone WINS! You both get credibility (you for being supported by another brand, your friend for having someone else other than themselves wearing their clothes), respect (you two will now actually give AF about each other’s existence and you’ve both won an engaging follower for life), money (your friend got his dollars from you upfront and possibly more sales from the cool photos you provided, and you will get the blue checkmark down the road, aka more sponsorships and paid opportunities). Buying someone else’s product and advertising it, is an investment in YOURSELF!
12. You must be followed by at least 1 other VERIFIED account.
Yes sir. The more blue badges are following you, the faster you’ll get your own. But how do you get these people to follow you? Actually, pretty easy. Write down on a paper B and C list celebrities you genuinely enjoy. No, saying B list is not an offensive term here. It is used to indicate someone who’s not too popular. You want to find mini-celebrities (ideally under 50k followers) who you can build a relationship with, based on a real-life connection. It could be a video vixen, an upcoming model, a new singer, an old forgotten actor/actress etc. Condition is obviously, they must be verified. What you then do, is follow them, comment on a bunch of their posts, then slide in their DMs telling them how moved you were by their performance in X or Y movie and how you’ve always carried their teachings with you. No, don’t kiss ass and be an obvious jerk. That’s why we said non-famous people you seriously enjoy. When you like someone, your words will be authentic and the receiving individual will highly appreciate your compliments. If you do all we mentioned, it is very probable they will voluntarily follow you themselves. If they’re not budging however, you can get bold and ask “I apologize if I’m about to come off as rude but it would make my year if you followed me. I love your music and the way you think, the way you positively influence people. It would make me feel appreciated.” And here you got a 50/50 chance. They’ll say “of course!” and follow you. Or they’ll block you the same instant. And either one is fine! It’s either one more blue badge on your account or one less individual to waste your time and support for. And don’t feel like you’re using anyone because you’re not. If you’re reading our articles on a daily basis, you’re someone who’s serious about his sh*t and intends to become a celebrity in your own right. You got the right to support people who will support you in exchange as well. And the right to not bother with those who won’t at least hit the follow button back.
11. You must average a minimum of ONE permanent post per WEEK.
A feed post, not those daily stories. Whether it’s Instagram or Facebook, you have to have an active, consistent presence. That is legitimized if you’re posting at least ONE photo per week. The condition is, that photo must be congruent with your brand’s identity and comply with the unwritten quality standards for famous people. Heck, you want the blue badge and that means you want to be an official celebrity. That means you gotta start acting, thinking, talking, behaving like one. Celebrities are always up to some partnership and good content. So don’t show me your grocery bag unless that bag has your logo on it. Get it?
10. You must show off your ACCOMPLISHMENTS.
Hand in hand with number 11, you have to make the most of your achievements. Did you just hit 50k views on your latest music video? Post about it! Did you just get a distribution deal in Korea? Post about it! Did you just get a freebie ’cause you were liked enough by another brand to invest in you? Post about it! Did you offer to perform for free for a charitable cause? Post about it. Did a blog write about your music? Freakin’ post about it. Most of the time artists have a whole lot of achievements they’re not thinking to frame as an official accomplishment. Start doing it now!
9. Your posts must have your FACE in them 90% of the time.
The other 10% are reserved for your pet (only if they’re outstanding enough to get you more likes), your gifts for and from others (hell, A-listers are always out there showing off the houses and cars they buy for their parents, so you got the right to show the cool TV you got your mama for Christmas), some vacation location you’ve actually been to (don’t EVER post pictures that you didn’t take yourself), and other positive, uplifting content that humanizes you (but still shows the greatness of your brand). I know some of you will think that we’re narcissists, but all we’re teaching you is already being done by the one-percenters. We’re just showing you the blueprint to applying the same mindset on a smaller scale.
8. 75% of your photos must be of PROFESSIONAL quality.
No way around this one. 3 photos out of 4 on your profile must be of the highest quality possible. No, not with your phone, but with your DSLR (or mirrorless or whatever is trending right now). Trust us when we tell you, the difference is always visible and is always there. You yourself can immediately tell when a photo was taken with a legit camera or when a smartphone was used instead. And when it’s a business person or potential sponsor looking at your profile, they’re even more visually trained as this is what they do. Invest in a professional camera even if it means not buying anything new for 6 months. If you can’t get a thousand dollars for a camera in half a year, you need to get your money right first, before even thinking about getting a blue badge. It is not our intent to encourage you to starve to get a Canon 5D Mark IV only for you to sit on it afterwards ’cause you’re too broke to have nice stuff in your photos anyways. Once you’re able to pay all your bills, eat right, work out, have some disposable income, that’s when you can think about investing in your brand image.
7. You must have some TRADITIONAL media coverage.
There’s one thing that nobody foresaw with the ever-growing use of the internet. Because of everyone having access to social media, traditional media became even more prestigious. Yes, you read that right. Being on TV, landing the pages of a newspaper, being invited on an FM radio show and not an online podcast, is a HUGE deal. You hear YouTubers talking all the time about hoping to cross over to traditional media someday. Even big companies thought that with the likes of Google TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime, people will completely ditch the old format and they soon realized they were mistaken, reverting instead to buying distribution rights to directly compete with TV. Humans are still not letting go of their cables, newspapers, journals, FM radios. Yes, the consumption got reduced a lot but that only filtered out the part-time consumer from the full-time consumer of traditional media. And even these Gen Zers kids value more someone who made the cover of Teen Vogue than someone who’s just famous online. Summed up, you get famous online, but you can only get the ultimate validation from traditional media. So don’t pay for TV ads, but do aim to get on TV shows.
6. There must be serious press coverage within the last 365 days.
Saying 365 days and not year because if you’re in June 2021, the top Google search results will focus on the entries up to June 2020, not the entire 2020. So whatever day, month, year you’re in, before applying for a blue badge, google yourself and see what others get when googling you. If fact-checkers see outdated news only, dating to 2 years ago or longer, they won’t consider it. You want press coverage at the very moment you’re applying for the blue checkmark.
5. Your brand must be TANGIBLE.
How do we put this without offending selfie masters? Oops we just did. Your brand has to actually represent something. Not just your pretty face from a hundred angles. You have to be selling your music, your merch, your services, something that makes sense. Don’t be showing good photos only for you to release 2 songs under 2 different names with no established long-term identity. You’d be surprised how often new artists change their names and forget they’re actually crapping on their own years-long effort of building brand credibility. If you’re a band, sell your bundle packages and music. If you’re a music teacher, sell your services and books. If you’re a manager, sell your connections and package deals. When fact-checkers look at your profile, they have to immediately see what you’re about. If you’re a rapper but I see more of your shoes (that you’re not selling and have nothing to do with your brand) than I see your vinyls and T-shirts, I’m just not going to approve you ’cause you’ll make us look bad too.
4. You must exist simultaneously on MULTIPLE social media platforms.
A minimum of two is mandatory based on our own observations. It’s okay to be popular on one and not as much on the other but you have to have a matching profile photo, timeline cover, bio, about, and contact info. Let’s say you only tweet once a month but are active on a daily basis on Instagram. Accordingly, Google will push your top active profile in the results and the secondary profiles right after. But trust us, it’s better to have your not-as-active Twitter, Facebook, YouTube profiles on the first page rather than unrelated brands that share similarities with your name and as a result, dilute your official identity online. And ALWAYS make the time to keep your look in sync across all social media channels. Not every month, but with every album release or major collab.
3. You must have over 10k REAL followers.
Not bots that don’t ever engage with your content. But real humans that connected with your music, your brand, and are interested in what you’re creating on a weekly, if not daily basis. It is MUCH more favorable to have 4.000 real followers that give you an engagement rate of 10% (400 likes per average on post), than 20.000 who only engage with you on an average of 1% (average of 200 likes per post). So aim for building your network one fan at a time and they’ll bring in other followers as well. Once you reach the 10.000 followers mark, you should be in the clear. Fact-checkers do very much care about the ratio between likes and followers so work on your odds in advance.
2. You must have older posts that prove intent and LONGEVITY.
You will get verified only if you’ve been around for a while. Meaning people can scroll back to posts older than 2 years ago and see your growth. The more posts from the past that can prove your organic evolution as a brand and potential celebrity, the likelier you’re to be approved for the blue badge. Unless you’ve had the stupid luck to go viral, you need a track record to prove your longevity and intention to permanently be active in your field.
1. You must have at least one active FAN account.
I know you must be saying “but… I want the blue badge to GET more fans!”, well everyone that’s now famous has once been in your same position. What mainstream news won’t tell you, is that there are PR companies that are paid to get someone to LOOK like they’re famous so that the client can leverage the fake fame to get real fame. So these companies create from 5 to 20 fan accounts, fill them up with tags that will help the accounts get discovered faster by other real users, then go to like, comment, engage, interact with real users while their bio says Fan Page of @clientwhopaidustolookfamous 😀 but people don’t know of these marketing strategies and they buy into the smoke and mirrors and go follow the mother account because they’ve just been hit by 20 fan accounts of the same one person, so now they think this person is worth following. Also, Facebook policy states clearly that they verify pages and personalities who other people pretend to impersonate too often. So you can create double, triple, quadruple accounts (must use different IP and different phone numbers), then go report yourself as someone trying to impersonate a celebrity, and insert your artist’s page name.
We seriously just broke down for you how PR companies make millions helping clients get verified. You owe us a follow ⭐
Blue Rhymez Entertainment 