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Meta's New "Verified" Plans Could Cost You $1,000 a Month
That blue checkmark is getting more expensive. And what do you get? Uh.. some Reels links and a "Meta expert" (ffs)
by Tod Maffin (LinkedIn • social media)
Today's News
META • “Verified” Checkmark Could Cost you $1,000/mo
Many years ago, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told everyone that Facebook would be free for everyone, forever. No takesies backsies.
Then, a little while later, that position changed a little. It became “There will always be a free version of Facebook you can access.” A subtle difference, but one that opened the door to a subscription service.
Meta cracked that door open last year by charging businesses for a blue checkmark and some vague promises about better support and higher search rankings.
Now, that door is being flung wide open.
The four tiers
The company this week announced its Meta Verified subscription plan for brands will soon cost up to $1,000 per month, depending on the tier you buy and how many accounts you want covered.
For now, they’re priced with some introductory discounts, and those tiers are:
Standard: The original tier, at $15 a month
Plus — $45/mo: Lets you add more addresses and profiles on your brand page, as well as the ability to put external links in your Reels — though that package is limited to two links per month. It also claims to put you higher in search results.
Premium: $120/mo: Adds two additional Reels links, plus some themes in your DMs with customers and some employee impersonation protection.
Max: $350/mo: Six links in Reels per month, plus they say they’ll have a “Meta expert” do a review of your profile twice a year to help you with your content strategy.
The “Profile review” is a joke, right?
To me, that latter perk is actually the weakest of them all.
Anyone who’s had to sit through a call from a “Meta expert” under the guise of helping them with their ad strategy knows that these people, while probably well meaning, really don’t know anything about ad strategy, they probably know less about the ins-and-outs of the ads manager than you do, and their advice is usually so simple as to be laughable — like “spend more” or “just do what the recommendations say.”
Prices will probably be higher
But as I mentioned, those prices are listed as “introductory offers”. The non-sale prices are considerably steeper — $500/mo for the top package, and presumably that’s going to be the renewal price.
And this is per profile, not per account. So those prices are for one Facebook page OR one Instagram page.
If you want both, that’ll be $1,000 a month after this sign-up offer, though Meta says if you buy both at the same time they’ll take 20% off.
Country expansion
Until now, the paid-checkmark program has only been officially available to brands in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Some accounts in the U.S. and other countries are part of a test group.
Starting today, businesses in Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Peru, France and Italy will also be in.
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