'It used to be that you had to be a celebrity in order to get a blue check next to your Twitter name. Pop stars and pro athletes could get that blue check. It was something reserved for the celebrity culture. Now, Twitter is allowing almost anyone to get a verified account.

Before you decide that you’d like a blue check, though, there are some guidelines that you’ll have to follow.

Not Quite Blue Checks for Everyone

Even though Twitter is making it much easier to get a verified Twitter account, you still have to be someone that people will want to follow. So you have to apply for the account, and then Twitter will determine if you’re someone that people will find interesting or semi-popular. You don’t need to have pop star status, but you do need to have some kind of status.

You can use the new form for account verification that can be found through the Twitter website. Once you have filled out that form, Twitter will determine whether or not you are a person that people will want to know more about. Exactly how the company figures out this part of the deal isn’t entirely clear yet.

Some Verified Considerations

Twitter has stated that the new verified accounts will go to politicians, TV, film, fashion, government, religious and other public figures. Twitter is largely offering these new verified accounts in order to make sure that fraud on the site doesn’t happen. Anonymous applications will not be considered.

Influencer Talk

Recently, there has been a lot of talk about social media influencers. One of Twitter’s goals with the verified accounts is to help people find influencers to follow and to make that process a lot easier. If you’re looking for an influencer in the field of technology, for example, a verified account that points out a key influencer might be something that would interest you.

What do you need to have in order to get a verified account? A valid phone number, a Twitter account with a decent amount of tweets, an email address, a website, and other qualifying criteria. So if you’re hoping to get a verified account without any current Twitter followers and no phone number, you’re probably out of luck.

A New Profession'

Social media experts that really want to get the top paying gigs should act swiftly to get those accounts verified. Having a verified account now will likely attract more followers, and those are the kinds of credentials that will, in turn, attract the best paying social media gigs. Companies will be looking for verified Twitter users too, so there are definitely more than two sides to this new verified coin.

Presently, Twitter has more than 320 million users monthly. Of those 320 million, nearly 120,000 of them are verified users. Soon, there will be a lot more verified Twitter users on the platform, which will definitely make things more interesting.

If you think you’re worthy of verification, go ahead and apply for a verified account now.