Twitter will let you apply to be verified

On Tuesday, Twitter announced that it would allow anyone to apply to be verified on the social network, giving people a concrete way to submit their information for review in the hopes of receiving the tiny "Verified" checkmark on their profiles.

How Twitter choices which accounts are verified has long been a source of great mystery for most people, with the social network tending to verify celebrities and other figures in the public eye at a seemingly random pace.

Getting a check mark added to your profile has become a status symbol of sorts, though the original intent of a verified profile is to highlight that a profile has been verified by Twitter's staff to be legitimate.

To submit a Twitter profile for potential verification, you'll need:

• A verified phone number
• A confirmed email address
• A bio
• A profile photo
• A birthday (for accounts that are not company, brand, or organization accounts)
• A website
• Tweets set as public in Tweet privacy settings