Those little blue checks don't come cheap if you aren't a household name.  And that might be a good thing. We know first hand how much power those blue "verified" check marks have on Twitter as we witnessed from the fake, yet briefly authenticated account purporting to belong to Wendi Deng. They've also become status symbols since the company shut down the process to apply for them in 2010. Nowadays only famous people seem to get them (finally a Kardashian has something in common with Barack Obama). But you can buy get one too, if you spend enough money on Twitter advertising or if you get famous enough to incite "impersonation issues"--which makes for a nifty "Celebrity or $15,000" test next time you follow a verified account (though there are caveats--since some blue checks were grandfathered in before the process was shut down).  Ad Age reports today: 

While verified accounts aren't officially for sale, Twitter advertisers who spend a minimum of $15,000 over three months can get one, according to a media publisher who has been trying to get his magazine's account verified ... When he asked a Twitter sales rep who had been in contact with him how to go about it, she replied that the only paths to verification are if an account has had impersonation issues or is an advertiser who's spent at least $15,000 over three months.

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Alexander Abad-Santos