Ever since controversial tech mogul Elon Musk bought his way into X (FKA Twitter… not to be confused with Musk’s ex, FKA Twigs) users have been leaving the platform in droves. The alternative they’re flocking to is a decentralized social media platform that gives users control over their data, and it’s called Bluesky.
But, is the sky actually bluer on the other side? All signs point to yes – with a whopping 24 million users as of December 2024, people seem to be loving the Bluesky app and all that it stands for.
Many brands have been hesitant to jump on the Bluesky train, but social media leaders (think Duolingo and Netflix) are finally making their way across and seeing success. If you’re looking for a Twitter replacement for your brand, it might be time to fire up your Bluesky account.
But, before you do, it’s important to know the lay of the land. Here’s everything brands and small businesses need to know about Bluesky.
What is BlueSky on social media?
Bluesky is a new, decentralized social media app for text-based posting and interaction. It was born out of a research project by former Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey in an attempt to create a decentralized social media network – meaning the app is not owned by one single entity and data is hosted across a range of independent servers.
Bluesky has been touted as the new X (Twitter), which many brands, creators, and normal folk alike are leaving now that owner Elon Musk has relaxed the platform’s rules around hate speech and added new terms and conditions that permit the use of user data – even from private accounts – to train its AI bots.
What is Bluesky? Well, it’s a new, decentralized text-based social media app to rival Twitter.
Bluesky started out in October 2021, but it’s gaining traction rapidly now that many users can see the downfalls of sharing content on X. After Donald Trump won the US election in November 2024, Bluesky’s user base grew by 1.5 million users as X hemorrhaged 115,000 users in the same day.
Who owns Bluesky now?
Savvy social media users will know that while Jack Dorsey started out on the Bluesky board, he’s no longer a part of the company as of 2024.
So, who owns Bluesky now? With Dorsey out of the picture, the company is now owned by CEO Jay Graber as well as an unnamed collection of Bluesky employees referred to as ‘the Bluesky team’ across official records.
How do you use Bluesky?
Bluesky looks and functions a lot like Twitter, and that’s no surprise, seeing as it was designed to mimic the platform – just with a different mechanism underpinning data storage and management. Let’s unpack exactly how Bluesky works.
Creating a Bluesky account
To start out on Bluesky, you’ll need to create an account for yourself or for your brand. The steps here are pretty simple, but we’ve broken them down for you so you can start seeing success on this app ASAP.
Sign up to the Bluesky social media app in just a few short steps.
1. Navigate to Bluesky: Visit the platform at bsky.app on your mobile or desktop browser, or by downloading the app from your device’s app store.
2. Click ‘Sign up’ and fill out your details: Once you opt to sign up to the platform, you’ll need to fill out your email address and date of birth, and pick a password.
3. Select where your data is hosted: Because Bluesky is a decentralized platform, you can choose to host your data on one of the app’s servers, or you can select your own hosting provider. If you pick the latter, fill in your hosting provider’s server address at this point.
4. Choose your handle: Like other social media platforms, you’ll need a handle for your account that reflects you or your brand. The name you pick will be automatically bookended by ‘bsky.social’ (e.g., ‘@plann.bsky.social’), however, if you’d prefer you can pick a custom domain later.
5. Set your profile picture: Give your profile a face by uploading a pic from your device or creating an avatar using the tools available on Bluesky.
6. Specify your interests: The last step in setting up your Bluesky account is telling the app what kind of content you’d like to see so it can accurately recommend accounts to follow and posts you might be interested in. Pick your interests from a line-up of 20+ options to customize your experience.
Finding people to follow on Bluesky
On Bluesky, you can find people to follow in the ‘For You’ feed or one of a number of other customizable feeds.
Like on Twitter, half of the fun of using Bluesky – even for brands – is following entertaining and engaging creators in your niche. While the app will recommend who to follow on Bluesky based on your preferences when you first sign up, you can also search for creators using a few techniques:
- Search by username: If you know someone’s Bluesky handle and you want to follow them, simply type ‘@’ then their Bluesky username into the search bar. You can also use ‘to’ or ‘mention’ followed by a colon and their username for the same purpose.
- Search using hashtags: Hashtags work the same way on Bluesky as they do on other platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and X. Type ‘#’ followed by your search term (for example, ‘#socialmedia’) into the search bar to bring up results from top creators. Then, you can click on each user’s profile if you want to see more of their Bluesky content.
- Browse the ‘For You’ feed: Like many modern social media platforms, Bluesky has a ‘For You’ tab that you can scroll through to find posts (and creators!) you resonate with.
Posting content to Bluesky
The other half of the equation on Bluesky is posting your own content to attract an audience in your niche and keep ‘em engaged. Here’s how to publish your first Bluesky post:
1. Click the ‘New post’ button or blue icon: Depending on whether you’re accessing Bluesky on desktop or the mobile app, there’ll be a ‘New post’ button or blue icon with a pen inside a square – click this to create a new post.
2. Type out your post: Write whatever you’d like to say to your Bluesky audience. Don’t forget to include hashtags or mentions in this step, too!
3. Add media: At the bottom of the dialog box, click one of the four rich media icons to add a photo, video, or gif, or take a photo using your device’s camera.
4. Write alt text: If you’re uploading an image, click the ‘Alt’ button to add an image description as alternative text. This makes your post accessible for visually impaired users.
5. Publish: When you’re happy with your Bluesky content, click the ‘Post’ button to send it out into the world!
How does Bluesky differ from X?
While Bluesky was modelled off Twitter – and looks very similar – there are still differences to be aware of.
There are a few key differences between Bluesky and X that you should be aware of before you create your own account.
- Bluesky is decentralized: Like we’ve explained, Bluesky is a decentralized platform, which means user data is hosted across multiple independent servers. The main repercussion of this is the safety of your data and the way it’s used – ultimately, compared to X, your Bluesky data belongs to you.
- Account verification works differently: On X, users can pay a monthly fee for verification in the form of a blue checkmark, or they can receive a gold or grey checkmark if they are an official organization (gold for businesses, grey for government organizations). On Bluesky, you must self-verify your account by linking it to a public domain (for instance, we’d link ours to plannthat.com). This ensures more transparency because verification is not pay-to-play, a system that has been widely criticized.
- The user base is smaller: While Bluesky has gained lots of new users recently, and its total audience base sits at a not-too-shabby 24 million, let’s face the facts – X is still a social media behemoth. Reports suggest X, Twitter, or whatever else you’d like to call it is repping over 335 million users as of 2024.
- Bluesky has no native scheduling: One for the social media managers, Bluesky currently has no native scheduling functionality, which means you’ll either need to publish your content manually and in real time, or schedule them using a third-party app.
There are also a bunch of nitty-gritty differences between the way you post and interact with others on Bluesky vs X, from intricacies of the ‘For You’ feed to customizable hashtag settings, profile limitations, and more.
What are the potential benefits of using Bluesky for business?
It’s always important to think deeply before you add a new social media channel to the mix – especially for brand owners and small businesses with limited time and resources. Let’s break down a few of the potential benefits of including Bluesky in your social media strategy:
- Expand your reach: If you’re creating engaging content, more platforms essentially mean more ways to reach your people. And, because Bluesky is still new, reach (and engagement!) on the platform are a little easier to win than in bigger, crowded marketplaces like the Metaverse.
- Tap new audiences: Bluesky has become the hot new platform post mass ‘X-odus’ – but it’s not just Twitter defectors that you’ll find over here. The Bluesky app is also attracting new audiences who’ve never used a social media platform of this description before. Could this be your chance to tap them, entertain them, and convert them to loyal followers?
- Escape the volatility of X: The app formerly known as Twitter has become a lawless land under Elon Musk’s reign, and he’s insinuated that this will never change. This opens brands up to way more volatility and dissent than ever before. Bluesky has been described as a ‘friendlier’ alternative to X, which presents a much more appealing landscape for brands.
Should your brand create a Bluesky account?
While some brands have slowly set up accounts on Bluesky, many are still holding out – so should you board the train or wait at the station? Unfortunately, we can’t answer that question for you – but what we can say is that users on the platform are growing rapidly, so if you take pride in being an early adopter, your time is running out.
If you have the internal resources to add a new platform to the mix, consider capitalizing on Bluesky in its infancy before the app becomes saturated and it’s harder to see engagement. However, if you’re already struggling to maintain a consistent social media strategy across your existing channels, Bluesky mightn’t be a good idea until you have that under control.
Other potential pros and cons to consider include whether brands in your niche are already on Bluesky, if you already have an X strategy you could lift and shift, and whether the nature of the platform correlates with your broader social media goals.
Ready to supercharge your success on social media?
Looking for an all-in-one content creation suite that allows you to manage your social media channels effortlessly? From mapping out your strategy and designing your graphics to saving plug-and-play hashtag sets, you’ll find everything you need inside Plann.
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