Through Blue for Business, you can identify which accounts are associated with your brand.
Twitter has revealed Blue for Business, a subscription for businesses who wish to “verify and differentiate themselves through Twitter,” as its press release states. The service allows companies to join their accounts with their employees’ accounts so that they can demonstrate that someone actually did do work on behalf of them.
The company is currently testing the service using “a selected group of companies,” including its own employees. Esther Crawford, director of product management on Twitter is wearing a tiny bird badge beside her blue checkmark, which identifies her status as an employee at this company. You see in her tweet announcement of Blue for Business. Craft Ventures, a venture capital firm, is also believed to have employees who are marked as affiliates, sporting an emblem with the company’s logo.
As of now, Twitter hasn’t shared a number of details regarding the service. We don’t have any information on how much Blue for Business will cost and who will be eligible, or how they’ll determine if the account is owned by a company Twitter’s Esther Crawford didn’t immediately reply to an inquiry regarding Twitter. The press release from the company mentions that it’s planning to let more companies join in the coming year. Twitter cautions (in an extremely small note) to be aware that Blue for Business’ features aren’t accessible on all platforms and “may alter frequently.”
A few of the features began appearing before the announcement. We’ve already looked at the rounded-square profile images and affiliate badges that began to appear earlier on Monday.
The potential in this case for Twitter is clear. The company wants to earn revenue through subscriptions and a new enterprise version for its Twitter Blue service could help to achieve this. The company has provided examples of instances of usage it expects to see with Blue for Business: sports teams that are affiliated to their players, film characters sporting a logo next to their names and journalists getting badges that prove they are actually working for a particular outlet. (Though Twitter may have a difficult time wooing journalists following its recent actions.)
Twitter has also begun rolling out a gray checkmark badge to “government as well as multilateral account.” It is possible that you are seeing it already on the account @WhiteHouse. Twitter announced in November that it would begin rolling out gray badges.
