Facebook / Insta pilot subscription service

This is a good move by Meta and will likely be a huge success if rolled out globally. The most valuable perk for verified users is access to support 'from a real person' for any account issues they face. Instagram and Facebook are notorious for having little to no support for users on their platforms, even if you have millions of followers, so this offering will appeal to many users. Smaller creators who are more likely to be impersonated (as easy targets) will also join the subscription to protect themselves from impersonation on the platforms. Whilst controversial, the potential increased visibility and reach for paying subscribers will likely increase the appeal. If you do not join, you may fall behind in the algorithms, and the subscription is a small price to pay to stay relevant on the platforms.

Following Twitter's release of Twitter Blue, the other giants of social media, specifically Meta's Facebook and Instagram, have taken notice of how willing people appear to be to pay for validation from a platform. You can almost see the dollar signs in their eyes. Whilst verification appears as a mark of validation or significance to people using the platforms, the platforms themselves have seen this as a huge opportunity to generate incremental revenue from their user base. Zuckerberg has always maintained that "Facebook is free, and always will be" but this is the first time we've seen the option for users to upgrade their experience. Economic pressures are forcing even the leviathans of social media to adapt.

It's intriguing that Facebook and Instagram are testing a paid verification service, particularly given the free access to social media features that users have enjoyed until now. Understandably, Meta is exploring new revenue streams, but it's uncertain whether users will be willing to pay for this service. From a marketing standpoint, the benefits of a verified badge are evident as it can help businesses and public figures demonstrate their authenticity and boost customer trust. However, it's crucial to consider the potential impact of this new paid service on smaller businesses and independent creators who may not have the financial resources to invest in a verified account. This could lead to further disparities in reach and engagement on social media platforms, which could ultimately impede their ability to succeed.

It’s interesting that verification will cost $11.99 per month on the web and $14.99 on iPhone or iPad. Why is there an extra tax against Apple users? Apple are the reason why Facebook has such a huge hole in its income following the iOS updates in July 2021 that have seen advertisers getting less and less as the ads platform becomes more restricted. It seems a little unfair, however, to penalise people using these devices if that’s the reasoning. It also seems to imply that your account verification would only show on the platform you signed up on. Surely a verification is a verification regardless of the device you use to access your account?

The optics of this move aren't great. In most circles, the consensus is that Musk is butchering the legacy and longevity of Twitter, and Meta following in these footsteps looks pretty poor on their behalf. The average age of most Facebook users is higher than other platforms (and increasing), which would suggest less digital proficiency and less need for a paid version of social media. Would your mum pay $14.99 to post pictures of her pets? Instagram is a different story and Meta has been phasing out organic reach for a long time now but I still fail to see many people jumping at the chance to pay for a free service. I can see this as a viable option for companies as it opens up a clearer route to customer service, but I don't expect this to change the world, let alone the revenue system of Meta.

Facebook needs to find more monetisation opportunities given the financial challenges being faced in the tech sector, and this is its latest attempt. I don't expect the verification service to be hugely popular, with the exception perhaps of brand pages, celebrities and power users. However, given that Facebook has over 2.96 billion global users, even a 1% take up in the service globally would represent over four billion in additional annual revenue.

Once again, this move will give more power to the bigger brands with larger marketing budgets. This feature will not be popular with already money-strapped small business owners or brands who are struggling to get seen on the platform. It is already hard to compete with established brands in the Meta world, while juggling the new features that they are introducing every week. I fear this move will shrink the smaller niche brands even more and they will lose more followers to TikTok. Instagram was loved for its creative scope that invited and included everyone for free and offered a global marketplace for little unknown brands. Taking that basic feature away will not be popular with their existing users.

For a long time, important people in society including politicians, actors, footballers and so on have had their name feature in all sorts of different pages. This has often caused confusion amongst people and sometimes created fake news coming from fake pages that didn’t belong to the real people. But also, verification does tend to give you further proof and validation and increases engagement. So when Twitter launched their service, it was welcomed by so many people who signed up to become verified. Elon Musk once again pioneered this “digital authentication revolution”. I do think this model would work for META on Facebook and especially Instagram, which is trending amongst the important roles mentioned above. Social media isn’t free, and if businesses aren’t spending, someone has to.