I was looking up ways to increase chances of getting Instagram verified today (I’ll probably request for one after growing my handle some more), and I decided to compile what I found:
First, Instagram has standard official prerequisites that you have to fulfil if you want them to even consider verifying your account:
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Authentic: The handle must represent a real person or organisation.
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Unique: The handle must represent a unique presence of the person or business. Only one account per person or business may be verified. General accounts, like meme pages, are not verified.
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Complete: The account must be public and have a bio, profile photo and be active.
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Notable: The handle must represent a well-known person or entity. Instagram reviews accounts with media features, excluding all paid content.
I honestly thought having a healthy follower count is the first thing IG considers, but I was apparently wrong. Handles like @shopify_stockroom and @ptr_yeung (Peter Yeung only being a freelancer!) got verified when they were hovering around 1000 followers.
Also, a HypeAuditor study in 2020 showed that around 3.26% of accounts on Instagram with over 1000 followers are verified. That’s actually a pretty solid number, given that most small business/influencer accounts don’t bother requesting verification. It’s definitely doable, especially if you’ve made a good name for yourself in your niche.
Other than that, staying active on Instagram (while making full use of all its features including Reels, Live etc), looking out for impersonators and building your brand on other mediums were most often cited as the best ways to increase your chances of attaining a verification badge.
You can read my full blog about this here!
PS: for anyone reading with a real verified account, I’d love to know how you obtained it.