How I Got Verified On Twitter

I am not a celebrity. I am not an athlete.   I do not have a million followers.   More people don’t care about what I tweet than do care.  I do what I have always done.  I tweet content that interests me.  I argue with people. I get blocked by people. I block people. While there is a large slant to mental health issues and sports, my content is pretty much all over the board.  Nothing out of the ordinary in a day of the life of someone active on Twitter.  I was impersonated once with a bogus account but Twitter took care of that quickly. Never happened again. So how did I get that “coveted” blue check-mark that in reality wont even get you a free cup of coffee at Starbucks or  a free Footlong from Subway that is really eleven inches?

About 4 months ago,  I started getting Direct Messages(DM’s) from “Verified Accounts. It told me to click on a link.  That link took me to a page that told me that if I answered a few basic questions about Twitter and gave a phone number I would be verified.  My reaction?  YEA RIGHT!  SCAM!   I thought it was a scam to get my cell phone number  and start bombarding me with  XXX porn texts.  I got these DM’s for a couple weeks. I deleted them. I went about my business tweeting, blocking and arguing.

About a month after that, I logged into the Twitter web-based application. This time there was a banner  from Twitter seamlessly integrated into my web browser again asking me if I wanted to get verified.  This looked legit.  I decided to go for it.  This time I did not have to answer any basic questions about how to use Twitter.  It simply asked for my phone number.  I entered it and the coveted blue check-mark appeared on my account. I was “verified”.   Why did they choose me?  I don’t have a freaking clue.  What does that mean?  In reality, not much at all.  My followers did not increase 10-fold.  No interview requests from major media outlets based on my new status.  My hemorrhoids did not go away.   I was the same old guy.  Tweeting, arguing, blocking, getting blocked and being a general douche at times when people annoy me.

So how do you get verified?  People love to chime in that it’s because I have a famous brother.  I am not sure the Twitter Illuminati are impressed by such things, but then again, I have no clue if that’s a factor.   I will leave it to the  self-appointed  social media gurus, mavens and rock-stars to outline all the gyrations and useless social media “techniques” that will help you increase your chances of that happening.  I am here to tell you that in the end, except for some  specific impersonation issues, it doesn’t mean squat.

Have a nice day!

Brian Cuban is a an author whose  best-selling book “Shattered Image: My Triumph Over Body Dysmorphic Disorder” chronicles his first-hand experiences living with, and recovering from childhood bullying, eating disorders and Body Dysmorphia Disorder (BDD) and drug addiction.  Brian speaks regularly about his recovery and breaking the male eating disorder stigma.