Should brands be on Bluesky?

As social media users grow increasingly frustrated with X's partisan atmosphere, Bluesky is having its moment. The platform has exploded from 13 million users in late October to nearly 24 million by early December 2024, and it’s growing fast, succeeding as a viable Twitter alternative for commercial organisations where platforms like Mastodon and even Meta’s Threads have struggled.

What began in Jack Dorsey's experimental lab has morphed into a new “digital town square” that Elon Musk is desperate for X to become. In fact, its reactions to Musk’s involvement in the US election that has prompted thousands of users and several big media brands to make the switch to the platform. But it's not just the numbers that are turning heads – it's the level of activity. Bluesky's Chief Operating Officer Rose Wang recently revealed a genuinely impressive statistic: 'Thirty percent of users on Bluesky are posters versus 1% on Twitter,' This is a highly engaged community. At least for now.

The platform's approach to content distribution is winning over major publishers too. 'We absolutely do not depromote any links,' Emily Liu, Bluesky's partnerships and growth lead, told Poynter this week. This is in contrast to X/Twitter, where Musk has freely admitted that including links will prompt his algorithm to deprioritise a post. Being able to link out to off-platform material without having a post throttled feels like a no-brainer for anyone using social media to engage with customers and promote services – The Boston Globe has seen its traffic triple compared to Meta's Threads, while conversion rates to paid subscriptions have skyrocketed to 4.5 times their previous levels, meanwhile The Guardian is getting better clickthrough from its 300,000 Bluesky followers than from the 10 million that followed its accounts on X.

Why marketers should pay attention

The features that make Bluesky unique are giving brands a genuinely compelling opportunity:

➔Engagement:The Guardian’s numbers seem to confirm the claims from Bluesky itself that this is a more engaged and proactive community than its rivals.
➔Link-Friendly Philosophy:Unlike its rivals' algorithmic gymnastics that often bury external links, Bluesky's straightforward approach to content sharing is proving refreshing for brands trying to drive web traffic.
➔Innovative Verification Approach:Bluesky has torn up the traditional blue tick rulebook, opting instead for a domain-based system where organisations verify themselves using their official website domain as their username. NPR becomes @npr.org, for instance – elegant in its simplicity. However, it's not all plain sailing – recent research revealed that 44% of the top 100 most-followed Bluesky accounts had impersonators lurking in the shadows, with only 16% of these duplicates properly labelled. The platform has responded by quadrupling its moderation team and tightening policies around parody accounts, but brands need to stay alert to protect their digital identity.

Growing pairings

The platform's rapid expansion hasn't come without its hiccups. Beyond verification wobbles, Bluesky's moderation team is racing to keep pace with the platform's explosive growth. They've admitted to making some 'short-term moderation choices to prioritise recall over precision' – a fancy way of saying they've occasionally had to shoot first and ask questions later when it comes to content moderation.

Data Tracking

For data-hungry marketers, Bluesky's open API is a game-changer, playing nicely with social listening services like Buzz Radar. This means we can track Bluesky performance alongside other platforms without breaking a sweat, making ROI calculations and engagement tracking straightforward. It gives the platform an edge over Meta’s suit of social tools, Threads, Facebook and Instagram, for example.

The Road Ahead

While Bluesky might not yet have the raw numbers to match X or Threads, its impressive engagement metrics and growing clout make it increasingly hard to dismiss. The platform's commitment to transparency and open standards, combined with its highly engaged user base, suggests it could become a crucial channel for brands seeking meaningful connections with their audience.

Our advice is, at the very least, to create a self-verified account on the platform, if only to stop impersonators, and start cross-posting material. Test the water and see how it goes. For marketers, the question isn't really whether to stake a claim on Bluesky, but how to best harness its unique advantages while the organic reach and engagement rates are still soaring. The window of opportunity is open, for now. We’d be happy to help you climb through it – drop us a line to discuss how you can adapt your social marketing strategy for Bluesky and other emerging platforms.

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Should brands be on Bluesky?