Social media marketing starts with verification.  In an online world filled with posers, wannabes and imposters, it will be comforting to internet users if the ideas, thoughts and responses came from the actual person or a representative of the company.  It makes the page authentic, trusting and official.

 

Verification is nothing more than a seal that represents “the true you” speaking on social media.  This seal is the difference between the real thing and everyone else.  Twitter started the verification process because so many “official” accounts were fake.  Twitter seals are a blue cloud with a white checkmark in the center.  Other social media accounts decided to add their version of the verification seal ranging from grey clouds and white checkmarks to a blue cloud with a V symbol. Pinterest, Vine, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, LinkedIn and possibly Instagram have added seal options for verification.  The verification seals on these popular websites will eliminate fraudulent accounts from making a name off you.

 

Search engines love verification, and will place your social network accounts above everyone else if it can be verified.  A small image can get you near or at the top of search engine result pages.  Use the verification seal to brand your company though social media marketing campaigns.  Link blogs, photos, videos, documents and audio file to social media accounts, and link those accounts to blogs, directories and sister companies to create quality backlinks to your website.  In addition, link social media accounts to each other.

 

Verification seals are hard to come by on some sites, but there are other ways to get verification.  One idea to make your account official is to connect the accounts to your official website.  Companies know how important it is to have an online presence, and their website is the main product of that.  It’s always updated, polished, professional and honest.  Adding social media websites to your site shows users that while not verified this is our official account.  They already trust the website and they’ll trust your accounts in return.  Sites like trustcloud will verify your accounts while giving you a trust score based on how often your account is used and updated.  The trustcloud badge can be encoded onto any blog or website.  A third way to get verification is to have many followers.  Those followers come from linking social accounts to your website, blog and the other social media accounts.

 

It’s frustrating to users to discover someone they connected to happened to be a fake account.  Make sure your users know the real you.  Grab an official verification seal on your page today. Contact us for more information.