Photo: Cheryl Kahla/Midjourney
Twitter is experimenting with a new affiliate badge feature which would link employees to their employer’s account handle.
In essence, the feature would visually link an employee’s account to the employer’s account handle on the social media platform.
When the icon is clicked, a user would be taken to the employer’s official handle.
The news was shared by Esther Crawford, product writer at Twitter. Crawford explains: “[Affiliate badges] are a new way to connect accounts to each other”.
Crawford – whose personal account is linked to her employer’s – said the early access waitlist is open to businesses.
The feature was initially part of the much-debated and criticised Twitter Blue for Business, which has since been rebranded to Verification for Organisations.
Several journalists at the Daily Mirror are currently testing the feature.
Apart from the verified blue marks, the Mirror icon can now be seen next to the Twitter handles of Alison Phillips, Mikey Smith, Lizzy Buchan and others.
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There are other cases for this feature as well, such as a company or publisher’s various spin-off accounts linking to the main handle.
The Twitter handle of Real Madrid striker, Karim Benzema, also links to his club, as does Antonio Rüdiger, Luka Modrić and others.
When the feature was announced, Twitter said: “This is an incredible moment for organisations to further incorporate their affiliated individuals, businesses, and brands into the DNA of Twitter”.
Director of the Nieman Journalism Lab, Joshua Benton, said affiliate badges are fine in the vast majority of cases. But… and there is always a ‘but’:
“When someone digs up an embarrassing old tweet from a reporter, their current employer will be right there next to it, seemingly giving it a stamp of approval,” Benton adds.
“Even in milder cases, plenty of reporters tweet about a mix of work and non-work topics — will newsrooms want to formalise their social affiliation 24/7?”
In other news, Twitter owner Elon Musk recently announced a more expensive subscription for an ad-free experience on the social media platform.
Over the weekend, Musk tweeted: “Ads are too frequent on Twitter and too big. Taking steps to address both in coming weeks”.
He said for those who choose to use the feature, “there will be a higher priced subscription that allows zero ads”.
NOW READ: Musk announces more expensive subscription for ad-free Twitter
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