To BlueSky or Not to BlueSky?
It is no secret that the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has become increasingly more polarising in recent times. Bought by billionaire Elon Musk in April 2022, X boasts over 500 million users worldwide and has a significant global presence.
With its ability to categorise conversations and show what’s trending, X has become a virtual arena for everything from celebrities to reality TV and increasingly concerning political discourse. The platform’s content has become more polarising and controversial, which has led to many businesses, publications and public figures removing themselves from X in favour of alternate social media platforms.
A regionally influential b2b client of ours recently asked us what our opinions were of BlueSky and whether they should implement it in their social media strategy instead of X. We carried out some research, and this is what we’ve learned.
Let’s begin
What is BlueSky?
So, how did BlueSky get started? Initially an internal project at Twitter, BlueSky was founded in 2019 by Jack Dorsey, who was CEO of X at the time. This explains one of the main distinctions about BlueSky – its similarity to the original Twitter platform. The project leader and now current CEO of BlueSky, Jay Graber, worked on developing BlueSky into ‘an open social protocol for public conversation’. Unintended to become anything more than an “open-source research project at Twitter”, BlueSky and X would part ways in 2022 following Elon Musk’s acquisition and rebranding of Twitter into X. Since then, BlueSky has stated that it aims to continue its primary directive:
“To develop and drive large-scale adoption of technologies for open and decentralised public conversation.”
But what has brought BlueSky to prominence all of a sudden?
Whilst starting as an invitation-only platform since February 2024, BlueSky has made itself openly available. Its users peaked in November last year when many X account holders abandoned the site in favour of BlueSky. This was predominantly in response to the re-election of Donald Trump and his association with Elon Musk.
Notably, the Guardian cited that “X is a toxic media platform”, so this switch may be symptomatic of a more significant issue with the site. In a brief article last year, the Guardian revealed that it believed it would be better to redirect their efforts towards posting elsewhere as the drawbacks of remaining on X outweighed the gains. They highlighted how the types of content being promoted on the platform as one of their primary concerns, namely the “far-right conspiracy theories and racism”. Compounding this was their view that X had become no more than a tool for Elon Musk to inflame political tensions.
This particular point seems well-founded when considering that far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was re-platformed in 2023. Moreover, this was after a poll was held by Elon Musk in which approximately 2 million people voted in favour of him having his account restored. Based on this, it’s evident that X has lost its appeal to many social media users and organisations. That said, BlueSky will have to go to great lengths to match or even surpass the numbers drawn in by X.
According to Backlinko Statistics in January, BlueSky has 27.44 million users and approximately 3.5 million daily users. By contrast, X has 500 million, with roughly 245 million daily users.
This raises the question: what is BlueSky offering to make people adopt it as their primary platform for trending discourse?
What are the Features of BlueSky?
Whilst many comparisons have been made between X and BlueSky, one of the major differences can be found in BlueSky’s decentralisation. What does this mean in practice? Put simply, this means that users can host their data on servers other than those run by the company, enabling users more control over where their data is stored. So, instead of relying on company servers, users can store their data on their own servers, such as a cloud service like Google Drive or a similar provider. Therefore, users have greater accessibility and flexibility regarding their privacy and security.
Another key feature is how BlueSky makes revenue. X can achieve this through paid advertisements and premium profile features. However, BlueSky has stated it will instead look towards having individuals pay for custom domains rather than adverts. This will keep the platform ad-free, improving user experience. However, it remains to be seen how profitable this approach will be and whether BlueSky can stick to this approach long-term.
Another key feature of BlueSky is its usage of the AT Protocol. This they best described themselves:
“The AT Protocol is a protocol for public conversation and an open-source framework for building social apps, meaning people have transparency into how it is built and what is being developed. It creates a standard format for user identity, follows, and data on social apps, allowing apps to interoperate and users to move across them freely. It is a federated network with account portability.”
Simply put, BlueSky users have greater control over their accounts than social media sites that do not use the AT Protocol. This means more overall transparency for the platform, ensuring that it will be harder for companies to hide unfair practices. This also applies to data storage as well. Namely, you will be able to access and attain copies of your data, if you require it, whilst also being able to store your data on a server of your choice.
Another key feature of this will be the interoperability of your account across multiple different apps that use the AT Protocol. This means the user won’t lose followers or data when switching accounts. Lastly, account holders will have greater portability. For example, if you are unsatisfied with how a platform is run, you can relocate your account and relaunch on another app without losing your username, followers or posts.
The key takeaway from this is that it all relates back to how BlueSky operates as a social media platform. From this, we can understand that their approach aims to optimise the user’s range of choices and freedom of use. In doing so, BlueSky is reducing the control it can exercise over individuals using it, creating a site that enables more virtual autonomy for its users.
Pros and Cons For Your Social Media Strategy
So, with the context established, what are the pros and cons for businesses considering BlueSky for their social media strategy? To best understand this, I signed up to BlueSky as Alice Violet Creative and learnt the following:
Pros
- BlueSky has many functional similarities to the original X. Notably, a 256-character limit, these are known as ‘Skeets’. The benefit here is that if you are currently using X as a platform, you won’t have too much difficulty adapting to the layout and working practices of BlueSky, which can help with efficiency.
- At this stage, BlueSky is still early in its foundation. This means there are plenty of opportunities for those looking to establish a strong platform presence. Seizing the initiative now may pay off later if BlueSky becomes mainstream.
- Similarly, as BlueSky is still in its early days there is no set way of operating on it. This allows businesses to experiment with new styles, layouts, and content creation methods rather than having to submit to competitive algorithms on sites like TikTok and Instagram.
- Searching through the platform, it was evident that BlueSky is attracting individuals rather than organisations. This means that more freelance professionals, such as journalists, creatives, public figures and tech experts, will be well suited to this environment. If you are a leader of a business and comfortable being the face of your brand, you will find building a presence on this site easier than building a business page. This is true of all platforms, though personal LinkedIn pages perform much better than business accounts.
- Lastly, as we have discussed earlier with the AT Protocol, BlueSky offers users greater control over their data by providing the option to store it on servers of their choice. This makes BlueSky an ideal platform for those concerned about data control and privacy. Those in the technical and cyber sectors may find their audiences leaning towards this platform.
Cons
- To be slightly contradictory, BlueSky’s low user numbers also provide obstacles as well as opportunities. Namely, with lower user numbers, there is a smaller audience for you to reach out to.
- Similarly, there is a lack of certainty regarding BlueSky’s future. In the best-case scenario, BlueSky will continue to grow as a platform and possibly reach a following that will rival its major competitors. The worst-case scenario is that it will remain a niche platform for very specific users. This could be a time-wasting activity. Especially if you were to invest a significant amount of energy trying to establish a presence, only for the platform not to take off.
- What struck me most when creating the BlueSky account was the significant lack of notable brands present. This indicates that major industries do not see BlueSky as a platform in which they should invest their time. I tried to follow brands such as Apple, Sony and even the BBC, however, they were not using the platform.
- If your business is very visually led you will be disappointed to learn that BlueSky does not include reels or carousels feature. This makes BlueSky unsuited to more visually driven types of content creation. Whilst you can upload videos and images to your posts, this is currently the extent of BlueSky’s posting range.
- Earlier, we noted that BlueSky will not be featuring paid advertisements. Whilst this will be ideal for users who wish to avoid targeted ads, it won’t benefit organisations or companies looking to gain revenue or visibility. Similarly, it will mean this business cannot direct their content at specific demographics or target audiences. This is likely why a distinct lack of notable brands is present at this stage in BlueSky’s history.
What role can BlueSky play in b2b businesses’ social media strategy?
To summarise and conclude this breakdown of BlueSky, what lessons can we take away for businesses and their social media strategy?
BlueSky is an ideal, albeit niche, platform for individuals who wish for more control over their data and who seek to avoid the political discourse on X. Its similarity to Twitter makes it an easy-to-adopt platform, cutting down on the time it takes to learn how to use it. At this early stage there is the potential for businesses to gain a competitive advantage by establishing a significant presence there. Yet, this is countered by the uncertainty of BlueSky’s future, its current user numbers and the lack of paid advertising, making it unprofitable. There is also the consideration of the absence of brand heavyweights being able to offer their insights and voice to this platform.
At present, we don’t recommend adding BlueSky to your social media strategy. However, we are drawn to the ethics and values of the platform, and for those wanting to support this, the best course of action would be to establish a personal account, keeping in line with the more individual aspect of BlueSky, and use this for more personal networking and also keep an eye on BlueSky’s progress.
Alternatively, you could create a professional account with a limited posting schedule to avoid overly investing your time whilst also establishing your brand presence. This latter approach is more optimal if you are a freelancer, small business, expert in your field or a creative professional.
What does the future hold for BlueSky? Only time will tell for sure as for now it offers a unique space for experimentation and more interpersonal networking. We at AVC will definitely be watching with great interest.
Would you like to know more about social media strategies?
Check out our article on: Dealing with The Post-Strategy Blue
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JACK
Digital Content Producer
SPECIALISMS
+. Writing
+. Video editing
+. Photography
+. Social Media Management