Yeah, I don't know why everyone thinks this means they quality. Just because anyone can apply doesn't mean everyone will get it. It's still very much the same as before. I think the bigger draw will be towards brands. Question is, how big of a following do you need?
> Question is, how big of a following do you need?
Looking around I find that apart from journalists (who can get verified with just a few hundred followers) few "real" people with less than 20,000 followers seem to be verified.
Even if you are "important" (eg a politician, actor, businessman) then it seems to be rare the be verified at that level.
Above 100,000 followers it seems very rare not to have the blue tick. All of the top 100 are verified. I did find https://twitter.com/joshingstern who has over a million followers and is unverified plus the odd person over 100,000
So random guess I'd say 20,000 minimum to bother applying and 100,000 to guarantee being accepted.
I don't know if its changed, but large accounts can lose their check if they change their name. Someone I follow had that happen a while back and they were quite annoyed by it since I guess there was no warning?