There is a couple of meaty rumours about Facebook’s plans for brands and artists doing the rounds today. TechCrunch reports that the social network will launch Verified Accounts today, following in Twitter’s footsteps. Artists and other prominent users will be invited to verify their identities using a government-issued photo ID, and as a result will “appear more frequently in the people to subscribe to list”. They’ll also be able to use pseudonyms – Lady Gaga could have a Facebook profile as Lady Gaga, rather than Stefani Germanotta for example. This may be part of Facebook’s desire for more celebrities to use Facebook as themselves, rather than as branded pages. That said, there are changes on the way for pages too. Advertising Age says Facebook will launch Timelines for brands later this month in the US, bringing the visual-heavy profile design for regular users to pages too. All this raises an interesting question: as time goes on, will artists be using Facebook as themselves, or as brands. Or both?
