X Premium Review: Is Paying To Be Verified On X Worth It?

X Premium Review: Is Paying To Be Verified Worth It?

15th October 2023, marked exactly a month since I subscribed to X Premium and I thought of giving a review based on my personal experience. Is it worth giving Elon Musk your $8 monthly? What are the features that come with X Premium formerly Twitter Blue?

What’s X Premium formerly Twitter Blue?

For starters, X Premium is a paid subscription introduced by X  after Elon Musk #TwitterTakeOver that goes for $8 on the web and $11 on Android and iOS in a bid to counter bots on the platforms.  X Premium comes with premium features that a normal user can’t access

Why Did I subscribe to X Premium 

First, I subscribed to X premium because I wanted to explore the features offered by X. Secondly, my posts were receiving less impressions despite getting some engagement such as likes and retweets.

Thirdly, in line with that, I got Influencer gigs early September to live tweet events. This meant my posts needed to get more impressions for my posts for me to deliver.

What are X Premium Features?

Here are some of the features or benefits you get when you subscribe to  X premium:

Edit Post: X doesn’t allow you to edit posts after sending out posts. However, with X premium, you can edit posts  up to 1 hour after sending it out.

Undo Post: You can also undo posts before getting visible to your viewers. After undoing it, you can edit. I have used this option more than the edit feature

Highlight posts: On X premium you can highlight some of your best posts on your profile. See, the way you can pin a post, yes but now  number of the to a dedicated highlight tab. I have used this alot since it makes it easier for a user to go through my profile and understand what I do and stand for on the platform

Post Longer posts:  On the premium version, you can tweet beyond the usual 280 characters. X premium supports 25000 characters with 4 in line images. I find this feature useful, especially when I want to share weekly recap of social media updates. Not bad after all!

Get boosted in rankings in conversations and search: If you are on regular X version, you will notice you have view impressions despite getting interaction on posts. X premium boosts your ranking on X feed and also on search. Also, on replies sections your replies are prioritized. 

Interestingly when starting in September I had  about 9600 followers and a month later I hit 10.1k followers with more increase. Also, if I compare my X posts impressions between August 14th  to September 14th, I had 262.3K impressions compared to  31 days of having a badge, I got 853.6K impressions 

Use Text Formatting: On the web, you can bold and italicize text posts. This comes in handy when I want to emphasize a point or word.  

Organize Bookmarks: Bookmarking posts on X is not just enough, you can also organize your bookmarks into folders. I prefer to organize folders to different topics for easier retrieval because it lacks the search feature.  

Create Communities. On X premium you can create up to 10 communities and spotlight your communities on your profile. I have a growing community on X on Digital Trends and Insights. Join here

Monetize, Make money: When you subscribe you can earn as a creator through X Ads share revenue program once you achieve 5 Million Impressions in the last 3 months.Payouts are made out after every two weeks.. Another way you can make money X is through subscriptions, where you can lock your content behind a certain preferred fee. 

Psst! Despite the growth in impressions and followers, I haven’t managed to monetize my account.

Get Access to X Pro: Remember the Free tweetdeck? Yes it’s now a premium feature behind 8 dollars renamed as X Pro. Still to explore more with its new interface. Thread Reader: When reading threads, you can use a new reading experience as one continuous post the way long posts look like. I love it!

Post longer high quality videos of up to 3 hours long.

Account analytics: You will get quick access to your account analytics in the last 7 days. 

Account Protection: X Premium allows you to add an extra layer of your account protection with two-factor authentication via SMS.

These are some of the X Premium features. You can explore more benefits here

How Do You Get Verified On X?

The verification process on X is very easy. You can choose to get verified on the Web to save up those 3 dollars. 

Here is how to get verified on X for Individual accounts

Step 1. Go to your Profile Menu and Click on “ X” on the Menu.

Step 2.  A new window will pop up showing Individual and Verified Organizations

Step 3. Next, click on Individual followed and hit “Subscribe” button

Step 4. From there decide if you will go for monthly or annual subscription

Step 5. Next, Pay by providing your card details and subscribe.

Immediately X will grant you access to premium but you will have to wait for them to review your application before the badge appears on your username. Mine took about 4 days to reflect on my X account

Is it worth paying for the blue tick on X?

The answer lies if you find the features locked behind the $8 dollars valuable.  For instance, if you want to grow your account, get prioritized and or are struggling with visibility on the platform, you may consider getting the badge.

NB:X is testing a new program known as Not  A Bot that will require non- verified users to pay an annual fee of 1 US dollar to be able to post, retweet, reply, like repost or bookmark posts. Read more here Oct 23-2023: 10 Things That Happened in The Digital Space Last Week