I wouldn’t work at Twitter if I wasn’t asked on occasion a lot more than on occasion how to get a verified Twitter account. Suffice it to say the rules on verifying a Twitter account are here, and that’s not what this blog post is about.
Instead, this post is about the innovative way I saw the Honorable Raila Odinga, Prime Minister of Kenya (he shares power with the President as part of a specifically brokered agreement based on the 2007 election results) attempt to tell the world that his Twitter account was really him.
Here’s the background:
Last week, I had the distinct pleasure to meet with some Kenyan government and media folks, include parliamentarian @jamesrege (the Honorable James Rege) and news personality @larrymadowo (the hysterical Larry Madowo). As we talked about some of the key African leaders on Twitter, I mentioned that we were still seeking to verify that @odinga_raila was indeed the Honorable Raila Amolo Odinga, so we could provide a verification badge for him as an oft-spoofed current Prime Minister (sharing power with the President) and 2012 presidential candidate.
While chatting I took another look at his profile and noticed something I hadn’t seen before:
The “verification link” then goes to this video:
Powerful folks can be hard to get in touch with, so I love the initiative he had here to create a video to “verify” himself. Obviously we can debate the merits of this self-verification (i.e. a fake could have also linked to this Twitvid) but cool nonetheless, no?
Yes, very cool Claire. Thanks for sharing this unique way to firmly say, this is really me! Best2U! ~@shawnupchurch
I agree it’s possible a fake could have faked the Twidvid but I think your instincts are pretty good on this one. Interesting example!
This is cool! Raila is an intelligent and a cool-minded person. He actually mentioned his Twitter handle in the video, just to make people believe that he is the real Raila and that he reads every single tweet
Followe me on Twitter: @mukhtaryare https://twitter.com/#!/mukhtaryare
Cool, no?
Interesting!
I haven’t figured out how to use twitter itself. I read Twitter for good but it didn’t give the fundalmentals. How do I tweet to all my followers? How do I tweet several new followers at once thanking them for following me? Lastly can I tweet several people that are not following me at once.
Thasnk you,
@Ragpicker70
There’s a great guide to getting starting here: http://twitter.com/about
The SD Team seem to be the only real people that can get your twitter verified, they did mine end of november, check them out verifymytwitter.com Follow me @nickswardson
i saw the site but the email they ask to send to doesnt work how do you know forsure this site still works
Yes, very cool Claire. Thanks for sharing this unique way to firmly say, this is really me! Best2U! ~@shawnupchurch
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