Should Your Organization Use Meta Subscriptions?

You might have heard about “Meta Verified,” or Meta’s new subscription offering that Zuckerberg describes as, “a subscription bundle on Instagram and Facebook that includes a verified badge, which authenticates your account with a government ID.”

In addition to this authenticated verification system, this new service also includes proactive account protection, access to (human!) account support, and increased visibility and reach. 

So, is paying a monthly fee ($11.99 on desktop, $14.99 on the App Store) for these features worth it for your organization?

In the current Metaverse, it is extremely difficult (if not impossible) to reach someone on the support team at Meta for any reason whatsoever. If your Facebook account gets hacked, if you lose your “Donate” button, if your Facebook Ads Manager got flagged incorrectly for running something political, etc., there’s virtually nothing you can do about it other than file an appeal and wait (sometimes years…) for them to get back to you.

The main reason to at least give Meta Verified a shot is to take advantage of the new account support feature, so you can actually reach a human to address any of your Facebook, Instagram or Ads Manager concerns now or as they arise. 

Zuckerberg also mentioned the inclusion of exclusive stickers for Facebook and Instagram Stories and Reels with a game-ified “star” system with the ability to show support for other creators. This could be something nonprofits in particular might want to take advantage of to rally behind partners/affiliates/influencers/donors, etc.

Similar to Twitter Blue, Meta Verified does not offer any distinction between the verified check marks that are legacy versus the ones that are paid. Though the ID authentication process will help weed out bots, the check mark confusion will likely create some unrest, at least initially, as it did on Twitter.

This type of subscription model adds more legitimacy to Elon’s controversial Twitter Blue, and is something we can likely expect more of from other social media platforms going forward. 

Starting with a gradual test in Australia and New Zealand, Meta is hoping to bring Meta Verified to the rest of the world very soon. TLDR: Give it a shot when it’s available!