The Bluesky social media site is gaining traction with authors and online entrepreneurs. Authors join Bluesky to connect with fans and build community. How do you use Bluesky?

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Bluesky launched to the public in February 2024 as a social media platform like X, formerly Twitter. Users can share 300-character posts containing text, images, and videos. It is available on desktop computers and as a mobile phone app on iPhones and Android.

Bluesky began as a research initiative under Twitter before becoming the independent company Bluesky Social. The original company logo was a cloudy blue sky but it switched to a blue butterfly in December 2023. While still in its open beta mode, it reached three million users in February 2024.

In early February 2024, Bluesky opened registrations to the public. Bluesky experienced growth and diminishment, partly driven by what developers at Bluesky Social called “Elon Musk Events,” or EMEs, due to controversies and changes at Twitter.

In August 2024, Bluesky gained over four million users in less than two weeks. On September 16, Bluesky announced it had reached thirteen million users. At the end of January 2025, Bluesky reached thirty million users and one billion posts.

Features incorporated into Bluesky include:

• Posts
• Replies, reposts, and likes
• Profiles
• Feeds, including lists, feeds, and Starter Packs
• Discover Feed
• Moderation

Bluesky is designed not to be controlled by a single company. Much of that control is in users’ hands. Bluesky gives users:

• A choice in their experience on this social network
• It gives creators independence from platforms
• Fosters a healthy developer ecosystem

As an author, you are not in charge of where your fans spend their time. If they are on X, you go to them on X, or Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, WeChat, WhatsApp, YouTube, Substack, REDnote, Reddit, Discord, etc.

With this post, I’m not giving personal preferences. Where we are is not up to us. It’s up to our audience, who we hope will eventually become our clients.

Your fans might not be on social media at all. You may need to meet them at swap meets or Star Trek conventions. As you collect fans, ask them where they go and follow them there.

But some of your fans may end up on Bluesky. You’ll know once you get a few and send them your introductory survey. My audience is on Bluesky, and yours may also be there.

Let’s start to learn how to use BlueSky together.

Someone you know from the publishing industry recently joined Bluesky and completely messed it up. They probably didn’t damage their reputation. But what a lost opportunity to grow a community on Bluesky!

You may find this situation helpful if you join Bluesky. Let’s say you’ve been on X/Twitter for years and have entered every tweet into a spreadsheet. I recommend this for your Bluesky posts.

So, now Bluesky appears. What do you do? Do you enter all 12,500 tweets as posts into Bluesky at a rate of about one every 36 seconds for almost four and a half days?

Well, you could do that. And doing so would illustrate to everyone that you are “on” Bluesky. But when this person did this, her number of followers didn’t noticeably increase from its original 6,500.

I sent them a message at around 3,000 posts to stop because we’d talked in the past but got no reply. I assume the message was lost amongst thousands of posts. That’s an example of why I don’t recommend taking this approach.

What if they had posted once per hour instead? What would have happened then? At that rate, it would have taken nearly a year and a half to make 12,500 posts.

But judging by my increase of 2,500 followers due to 40 posts on Bluesky, they would have ended up with around three-quarters of a million followers. Imagine the community they’d build over half a year by interacting with every reply. My estimate does not include any fans reposts as a growth multiplier.

I found such a waste horrifying. They’d be far better off deleting that Bluesky account and starting with a new one. Yes, they’d lose 6,500 followers but gain 781,250 followers.

In 2024, I joined Bluesky to reserve my unique business username. I did little more than upload my logo and a banner image. Later, I got around to focusing some attention on it.

I added a profile description, a collection of short videos answering questions from my YouTube audience, podcast episodes, and a few articles from my website. Then, I followed 800 authors suggested by Starter Packs from other Bluesky profiles. My followers increased to 120.

Next, I stopped following everyone except for a writer friend of mine. Then, I did nothing because I wanted to see if my posts would attract any attention as they were supposed to. Nothing happened for about ten days.

On a Wednesday night around 7 p.m., I noticed I had a hundred more followers in the last ninety minutes. And another hundred followers an hour and a half after that. That was 200 followers at about one follower every 30 seconds.

This rate of new followers continued through the night and for the next four days. The overall rate was one follower every minute or so. Eventually, the dramatic climb plateaued at just over 2,500 followers.

What works is to post multimedia content. This “method” influences the Bluesky algorithm to promote your content. Doing so is standard on the internet.

Future articles will explore why multimedia content is so important, how I’ve benefited from creating it myself here and elsewhere, and the rewards you can expect.

However, getting a social media algorithm to promote your profile and gain followers is only the very first step to having a community. After followers show up, you need to entertain, teach, and interact with them. If not, they will go away if they were even interested in the first place.

Hundreds of social media sites are all trying to be the next big thing. Some of these apps make it, which means your fans could be there. If they are, it’s good business practice for you to be there with them.

Find your fans and support them where they are. Build and grow a community of fans. If doesn’t have to happen on a social media site, but could be a swap meet, flea market, trade show, or Star Trek convention.

But Bluesky might be an opportunity to grow your community of fans. Let’s assume that’s where your fans say they are. Here’s how to connect with them:

• Actively engage with fans’ posts by replying, commenting, and participating with likes and reposts.
• Leverage the Starter Packs of like-minded accounts to discover fans quickly.
• Follow the topics and hashtags your fans are interested in to build relationships.
• Consistently create quality and relevant content that aligns with your niche.
• Foster positive interactions while being authentic in your engagements to foster visibility.

Generally, be respectful and inclusive, respond to feedback, and be patient. Building a strong community takes time and consistent effort. Examples of good and bad community building abound.

The Bluesky social media site is gaining traction with authors and online entrepreneurs. Other authors join Bluesky to connect with fans and build community. Have you?

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