What brands need to know about Bluesky
Insights from Jess Spar, SVP, Head of Social Media + Influencer Marketing
Following the election, we’ve seen a significant exodus of users from X to Bluesky, with the app increasing to over 20 million users in recent weeks.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a platform emerge after a political shift or social dynamic change; Lemon8 surfaced amid fears around a TikTok ban. When Elon Musk first took over Twitter, Bluesky entered the scene as an alternative (scroll down to see the POV we shared in May 2023).
Will trends continue to shift heading into 2025, given that Bluesky didn’t seem to significantly take off when it first emerged? Does this re-emerging platform warrant our attention and investment? Let’s walk through the top considerations for brands thinking about launching a Bluesky presence.
Consideration #1: Politics at Play
The recent uptick in usage has largely been fueled by the post-election political landscape, especially as users note negative experiences with the handling of political messaging by both Meta (inclusive of Threads, another Bluesky competitor) and X, with Meta trying to distance itself from politics and X skewing towards conservative messaging.
It’s important to consider your company’s values and whether joining Bluesky may indicate a political stance. What role would Bluesky play in your communications strategy, and what would joining say about your positioning as a brand? This is an important consideration when determining whether to join the platform.
Consideration #2: Potential for Longevity
While Bluesky’s user base has hit the 20 million mark (with a crazy growth rate of 5.21 users per second), its user numbers still lag behind giants like Threads (275 million monthly active users) and X (250 million daily active users), indicating that Bluesky still has a ways to go before becoming a mainstream contender.
Additionally, Bluesky has faced growing pains such as outages during its rapid growth, so it will likely need to update its infrastructure in order to support the booming user base. Also, given that Bluesky initially saw a surge in interest following Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover and fell out of the news until recently, it’s worth considering whether this channel has long-term potential or if we’ll see its popularity wane once again.
Consideration #3: Brand Bandwidth
As with any emerging platform, it’s essential to consider if your brand has the bandwidth to develop a thoughtful strategy for Bluesky and maintain a presence over time.
While Bluesky offers functionality reminiscent of Twitter’s early days, it will be important to understand algorithm differences to develop content and strategy for the nuances of the channel. For example, the platform has Starter Packs (custom feeds that can be built around shared interests, peer sets and more), allowing brands to create more targeted communities and campaigns. Brands will need to become immersed in the platform and understand how to best utilize these new features.
Consideration #4: Executive Presence
Beyond brand communications, it’s essential to consider executive presence on Bluesky as leaders are being positioned more intentionally. As of now, there hasn’t been a significant influx of executives on Bluesky—at least compared to the likes of LinkedIn or X—however, Bluesky’s appeal as an interest-based platform may lend itself well for executives to curate communities with their peers and industries.
We’re seeing early adoption primarily amongst tech enthusiasts, journalists, media influencers and internet personalities. While some journalists are transitioning to Bluesky, we continue to see hyper-fragmentation among social platforms, driven primarily by the narrow interests of their users (journalists included). However, engaging with journalists on Bluesky can make sense when done so with deep intentionality within the context of a broader social and media relations strategy.
While time will tell whether Bluesky has staying power, there are some steps brands can take to prepare for the future:
For starters, we recommend you secure profiles for your brand and key executives to be ready to activate as relevant for your brand and leadership.
Consider your existing channel strategy: Has this type of channel historically been a part of your platform mix? Does it make sense for you to have a presence on this platform? Are your competitors, audience and relevant influencers there?
Assess performance and audience: If you’re currently active on X, how has your performance shifted recently? Has your engagement dropped? Has your following decreased? Are you seeing your audience emerge on Bluesky or other platforms?
Determine your brand stance and communications approach: Do you want to be the first in your field to foray on to the platform? What is your appetite for testing and learning? Does your brand’s audience skew one way or another politically? Are you prepared with a communications plan to address any potential feedback if you are joining the platform?
As always, KWT is happy to help workshop these questions and considerations with you to determine the next step for your brand. We are keeping a close eye on how brands and individuals alike are using the platform. Many journalists are saying they have made the switch, which may also open new earned media engagement opportunities.
Stay tuned for more guidance and recommendations from us as the X and Bluesky platforms continue to evolve.
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Bluesky POV May 2023
Why does this new platform matter? With the volatility that has come to Twitter following Elon Musk’s takeover, Twitter has increasingly come into question as a valid social platform. Usage is dropping as brands and users exit the platform. As Twitter has historically been a more text-oriented platform, allowing for easy back and forth conversation and a place for brands to share news/updates, engage audiences in conversation, and provide customer service, this opens up the opportunity for another platform to fill this need. Enter Bluesky.
So what is Bluesky? Interestingly enough, Bluesky was actually started by Dorsey while he was still at Twitter. The goal of Bluesky is to act as a decentralized social media platform, similar to Mastodon or Discord (two of the more niche social platforms). The benefit of decentralized platforms are that they provide more user control, something that the likes of Meta or Twitter don’t offer. Bluesky is built on AT protocol infrastructure, which will allow continued growth in transparent communication and control, a key benefit being the ability to essentially create your own social networks using this technology or move your data over to a different social network that uses the AT protocol technology. This means that if Bluesky goes in a direction you’re not a fan of, you still have options beyond (a) stay or (b) leave and lose everything.
What are next steps? While this all sounds amazing, Bluesky is still in a private beta that’s invite only, or you can join the waitlist, so there’s not a lot to share at this time. We recommend signing up for the waitlist so you can explore what the platform looks like once gaining access, but this is likely going to be one of those “wait and see” opportunities to determine how things play out over the coming months. Platforms often come and go with their fifteen minutes of fame (e.g. Clubhouse), so it’s important to understand the likely longevity of a platform before developing a new strategy and diving in.