Twitter Blue just got another revamp, this time focusing on businesses
Blue for Business adds yet another verification system to the platform
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Blue for Business
🐤 Twitter has announced a new business-oriented version of Twitter Blue
🔗 Blue for Business will let companies directly link employees to their accounts
✅ It’s designed as another verification tool for big businesses
⌛ It’s received a soft launch ahead of its full rollout next year
Following the relaunch of Twitter Blue earlier this month, the social media company has officially unveiled Twitter Blue for Business, a new tier of the premium subscription service geared towards corporate accounts.
The service is intended to “enhance and distinguish businesses on Twitter” by allowing companies to link their main business accounts with those of their employees, and better identify who works for a company using a new type of profile badge.
“As a Twitter Blue for Business subscriber, a company can link any number of their affiliated individuals, businesses and brands to their account,” Twitter said in a press release. “When they do, affiliated accounts will get a small badge of their parent company's profile picture next to their blue or gold checkmark.”
Esther Crawford, Twitter’s head of product management, for example, now has a miniature Twitter logo next to her profile name, indicating she is a verified employee of the company. While blue verification check marks used to offer a quick way of evaluating whether an account really belonged to the person it claimed, those ticks count for very little now they can be purchased by simply subscribing to Twitter Blue.
Twitter suggests employees, executives, brands, journalists, sports team players and movie characters could all be affiliated with a parent account under the new Blue for Business service, although it’s up to the subscribing company to elect which accounts are linked to it.
Blue for Business is currently only available for an undisclosed “select group of businesses”, but will be rolled out to more businesses next year. Twitter says it also plans to layer more features into the service to “help businesses and their affiliates get the most from Twitter”, but hasn’t said what that will involve.
It’s also unclear how much a subscription to Blue for Business actually costs, how Twitter will select which business to offer the service, or how those companies will be able to pick which accounts are affiliated with them. A standard subscription to Twitter Blue costs $8 a month.
Blue for Business is just Twitter’s latest way of differentiating between accounts. It’s already rolled out three types of verification checkmarks as part of the regular Twitter Blue service in an attempt to curb the number of trolls and impersonation accounts.
It also looks like a deliberate effort to court companies and shore up Twitter’s subscription revenue through yet another, corporate-level membership scheme. CEO Elon Musk has already raised the issue of bankruptcy and appears to be betting big on subscription services to buoy the company forward. At least the Twitter Blue sign-up problems have now faded.