Twitter’s newest service, a subscription-based platform membership called Blue for Business, now gives brands the opportunity to highlight their profile with a blue check. It’s a new way for brands to stand out on the platform, reach a niche audience, and sharpen their competitive edge. 

Whether Twitter users consider the premium blue checkmark a brand credibility booster, or little more than a gimmick, the reality is that the subscription service is gaining steam. In March alone, 116,000 new users joined the program—and its growth doesn’t seem to be slowing anytime soon.

The shiny blue checkmark isn’t the only potential brand-building benefit of this premium service. For businesses that know how to make the most of their membership, Blue for Business can unlock a whole new audience of curious customers. 

Twitter’s Blue for Business puts the spotlight on paying brands.

Blue for Business was first launched in November 2022 as a way to help paying brands stand out—and to cut down on the number of convincing fake accounts that mislead followers. 

Instead of brands and affiliates applying for a blue checkmark through Twitter’s free verification process, which prioritized accounts with large followings and brand awareness, now almost any brand that wants the extra stamp of legitimacy can pay $8 a month for a blue checkmark that appears on desktop browsers, or $11 a month for an in-app icon. Once your brand has subscribed, you can even link any number of employees and affiliates to your company—adding the checkmark and your company logo to their profiles, too. 

Brands that become verified through Twitter Blue also have access to a number of bonus benefits and features, including: 

• Longer Tweets. Basic Twitter users can post up to 280 characters at a time. Blue subscribers can add up to 4,000 characters per post—greatly expanding their ability to share information and engage their audience. 

• Longer videos and more images. Blue subscribers can post up to 42 minutes of video content at a time. Considering 91% of businesses leverage video marketing, the opportunity to add longer videos can be a great benefit to your visual strategy. 

• Undo Tweet. Accidentally mis-tagged someone? Caught a typo? Blue users can retract a tweet before it’s viewed, without having to delete or edit the post.

• Greater visibility. Blue users are automatically bumped up in Twitter search results and feeds, even for organic posts. That gives these premium subscribers wider brand awareness—and faster ROI. 

There may be one more compelling reason for buying the little blue check—starting in mid-April, Twitter plans to limit your feed to include only posts from the users you follow and posts from verified accounts. If your brand isn’t a Blue user, your posts will no longer appear in users’ “For You” tab, and your account won’t be listed in the “Who to Follow” section.

Is Twitter Blue an opportunity for your brand?

As of April 2023, an estimated 400,000 users subscribe to Twitter Blue. And while that seems like a huge number, it represents less than 1% of Twitter’s 500 million monthly users. That means brands that jump on the trend early may have the benefit of outranking and outperforming non-subscribed brands—at least until the program gains traction.

Plus, now that Twitter is removing the blue checkmarks from non-paying brands, the few who do have the icon may be more appealing to potential customers. 

But Twitter Blue may not be the perfect strategy for every brand. If your audience prefers Facebook to Twitter, or favors YouTube and Google over community-based platforms, your marketing money may be better spent elsewhere.

Whether you’re ready to jump on the bandwagon today, or take a wait-and-see approach, Twitter Blue is a trend worth watching. If nothing else than for the headlines it’s creating!

Social media is just one tool in your digital marketing tool belt.

At MediaSpark, we help small businesses gain big brand awareness by leveraging multiple marketing and advertising channels—geared towards your dream customer. Want a strategy with ROI that pays for itself? Chat with our team to find out what’s possible!