Stream post header example

Would it be at all possible to get an example of what the code snippet should look like for creating a stream post?

I have two 3rd party apps that are not doing this correctly at this point, and I can only assume more of them will have the same error. In the screen shot you can see the top is what I am getting (Real name and no verified user check mark) from the 2 apps and the bottom is what it should look like (Username and the check mark).

My guess is that it's this single line of code that needs updated in each of the apps, but I don't know what exactly is wrong with it.

$item_title = '<a href="'.$profile_link.'">'.$actor->name.'</a> ';