The Bluesky social media platform is becoming increasingly popular among authors and online entrepreneurs. Many authors are utilizing Bluesky to engage with their fans and foster a sense of community. If you want to explore Bluesky, consider its various features to enhance your interaction with followers.

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Bluesky, a social media platform like X, previously known as Twitter, was introduced to the public in February 2024. Users can share posts of up to 300 characters, including text, images, and videos. The platform is accessible on desktop computers and through a mobile app for iOS and Android devices.

Originally, Bluesky started as a research project under Twitter before evolving into an independent entity, Bluesky Social. The initial logo featured a cloudy blue sky, but this was changed to a blue butterfly in December 2023. By February 2024, while still in open beta, Bluesky had already attracted three million users.

Registration opened to the public in February 2024, leading to fluctuations in user growth. This variability was partially attributed to events linked to Elon Musk, referred to by Bluesky Social developers as “Elon Musk Events” or EMEs, stemming from controversies and changes occurring on Twitter.

Notably, in August 2024, Bluesky saw a surge, gaining over four million users within a span of less than two weeks. On September 16 of the same year, it was announced that the user count had escalated to thirteen million. By the end of January 2025, Bluesky’s user base reached thirty million, alongside a milestone of one billion posts.

Bluesky incorporates a range of features, including:

• Posts
• Replies, reposts, and likes
• User profiles
• Various feeds, such as lists, personalized feeds, and Starter Packs
• A Discover Feed
• Moderation tools

Bluesky is designed to decentralize control, placing significant power in the hands of its users. It offers several advantages, including:

• Customized experiences within the social network
• Independence for creators from traditional platforms
• The promotion of a healthy ecosystem for developers.

As an author, it’s important to recognize that you don’t control where your fans spend their time. If they are active on platforms like X, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, WeChat, WhatsApp, YouTube, Substack, REDnote, Reddit, Discord, and others, it’s essential for you to engage with them there. 

This message isn’t about personal preferences; rather, it’s about understanding that our presence is dictated by our audience. Ultimately, we hope these fans will become our clients.

It’s also possible that your audience may not use social media at all. In such cases, you might encounter them at local events, swap meets, or conventions, such as Star Trek gatherings. As you build your fanbase, ask where they prefer to connect, and try to follow them to those locations.

Additionally, some of your fans may choose to interact on platforms like Bluesky. Once you begin collecting responses through an introductory survey, you can gauge their presence there. If I’ve found my audience on Bluesky, yours could be there as well.

Let’s explore how to use Bluesky together effectively.

Recently, a familiar face from the publishing industry joined Bluesky, and unfortunately, their approach didn’t yield the best results. While their reputation may remain intact, this situation illustrates a missed opportunity for community building on the platform.

For those considering joining Bluesky, there’s a useful takeaway here. Suppose you’ve been active on X/Twitter for several years and have meticulously tracked each tweet in a spreadsheet. You may want to apply a similar strategy for your posts on Bluesky.

With the launch of Bluesky, you might wonder about the best way to transition your content. You could, for instance, post all 12,500 of your past tweets at a pace of one every 36 seconds over the span of nearly four and a half days. While such an effort would certainly showcase your presence on Bluesky, it may not result in significant follower growth, as evidenced by this individual, who remained at around 6,500 followers despite their extensive posting.

In fact, I contacted this person when they reached about 3,000 posts, suggesting they reconsider their strategy, but I received no response. This experience highlights why such a rapid posting strategy may not be advisable.

Consider a different approach: if they had opted to post just once per hour, it would have taken approximately a year and a half to reach 12,500 posts. However, given my own experience of gaining 2,500 followers from 40 posts on Bluesky, this individual could have potentially amassed around 750,000 followers using a more measured tactic. The difference in follower count could have allowed them to foster a vibrant community over six months by engaging with every reply. This estimate does not account for the additional growth that might result from fans reposting their content.

It’s unfortunate that they missed such an opportunity. Starting fresh with a new Bluesky account could have been a more strategic move, even if it meant losing their existing 6,500 followers in exchange for potentially gaining 781,250 new ones.

In 2024, I registered on Bluesky to secure my unique business username. Initially, my activity was minimal; I uploaded my logo and a banner image. Eventually, I dedicated more time to enhancing my profile.

I enriched my profile with a description, a series of short videos addressing questions from my YouTube audience, podcast episodes, and various articles from my website. Following this, I connected with 800 authors recommended by Starter Packs from other Bluesky users, which helped grow my followers to 120.

However, I then decided to unfollow everyone except for a writer friend to test whether my posts would attract attention on their own. During this period, I observed a lack of engagement for about ten days.

On Wednesday night, around 7 p.m., I noticed a surge in my follower count, gaining 100 new followers within just 90 minutes. An hour and a half later, another group of 100 followed me, totaling 200 followers at a rate of approximately one follower every 30 seconds. This influx of new followers continued throughout the night and persisted for the next four days, averaging around one follower per minute, eventually stabilizing at over 2,500 followers.

The key to this rapid follower growth was posting multimedia content. This approach appears to favorably influence the Bluesky algorithm, promoting my content more effectively. This trend aligns with common practices observed across the internet.

Future discussions will delve into the significance of multimedia content, the personal benefits I’ve gained from creating it on various platforms, and the potential rewards that others can anticipate from this strategy.

Establishing a social media algorithm to promote your profile and attract followers is the first step in building a community. Once you have followers, it is essential to provide valuable content, engage in educational exchanges, and interact with them regularly. Failing to do so may result in losing followers who were not genuinely interested in the first place.

With numerous social media platforms vying for attention, it’s crucial to recognize where your fans congregate. Some platforms may gain popularity, meaning your audience may be active in those spaces. Therefore, it’s beneficial for you to establish a presence there alongside them.

Connecting with your audience can happen in various locations, be it on social media or in-person events such as swap meets, flea markets, trade shows, or conventions. For example, Bluesky could be a promising avenue to expand your community, assuming that’s where your fans are expressing interest. To effectively connect with them, consider the following strategies:

• Engage actively with fans by replying to their posts, commenting, and interacting through likes and reposts.
• Utilize Starter Packs of similar accounts to identify and discover your audience quickly.
• Follow relevant topics and hashtags that resonate with your fans to foster relationships.
• Consistently produce high-quality content that aligns with your niche and appeals to your audience.
• Promote positive interactions and maintain authenticity in your engagements to enhance visibility.

Overall, it is crucial to embody respect and inclusiveness, respond thoughtfully to feedback, and practice patience. Building a robust community is a gradual process that requires consistent effort, and many examples illustrate both successful and unsuccessful efforts.

The Bluesky social media platform is becoming increasingly popular among authors and online entrepreneurs. Many writers are turning to Bluesky as a space to engage with their audience and foster a sense of community. Have you considered joining?

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