The Blue Checkmark: Is It Worth It? | Heather Elyse Head

Heather Elyse Head | Episode 1111

Heather Elyse Head, a Northeast Georgia potter, blends traditional folk pottery with vibrant glazes and whimsical female faces. Mentored by esteemed regional potters, Heather’s playful creations bring a modern twist to the craft. Her favorite part? Seeing her work makes people smile.

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From your perspective what is the blue checkmark?

It’s a way to show people that I am who I say I am. I think it instills a bit of confidence in my followers.

So it’s a verification of who you actually are. It verifies that you are not a fake account.

Right.

You said you had increased sales as a result. Do you think that is because you had more credibility?

I think that’s possible. It is also possible that I just put in extra effort on Instagram because I had the new blue checkmark. So it’s hard to know for sure if it was from my extra effort or if it was from the checkmark.

Do you feel like you have gained more followers since you started to do this?

I do feel like I have gained more followers but I don’t think it has helped my engagement on the individual posts. I think my engagement hasn’t changed at all.

Are you referring to other people making comments?

Right, like the likes and comments those definitely haven’t gone up from the blue checkmark. I used to actually get more interaction on a post. So something changed within the algorithm across the board.

It seems like it puts some limits on your account like you cannot change your user name as easily. Do you see that as a drawback?

I really don’t. I think when you change things too much it makes people feel a little uncertain about your business. You want to have consistency. And it does make it harder to change the profile picture. They have to do the reverification process every time.

When you are not in the studio what do you like to do for fun?

I always say it’s a good thing that I really enjoy making pottery because that ends up being my business and my main hobby. So when I am not making pottery I am thinking about what I can do to make pottery. When I am ordering things and I get all these packages, it’s pottery supplies of course. (laughter) I listen to a lot of music and I read a lot of books but I am also usually thinking about pottery.