Strategy

Curious about Bluesky? Learn how the platform works, who’s on it, and how to build a strategy that actually fits.

At some point, someone on your team has probably asked, “Should we be on Bluesky?”

Whether you’re ready to go all-in or just test the waters, it helps to know what you’re getting into first.

Here’s everything you need to know about Bluesky, plus a step-by-step guide to building a strategy that works.

Key takeaways

Bluesky is big enough to experiment with. It grew nearly 60% in 2025, and now has over 46 million users.
You can’t buy reach. Bluesky has no ads, so attention has to come from useful posts and real conversations.
Bluesky has custom feeds. Users choose their own feeds, so there’s no single algorithm to game.
Consistency matters more than usual. Bluesky’s Following feed is chronological, so posts get buried quickly. A steady, realistic schedule keeps you visible.
Tools like Hootsuite keep Bluesky manageable. Schedule posts with Perch, track conversations with Lumen, and ask Wisdom what’s working.

What is Bluesky, and why does it need its own strategy?

Bluesky is a decentralized social network where people share short posts, follow accounts, and choose their own feeds. It looks a lot like early Twitter, but with one big difference: users have more control over their experience.

Bluesky needs its own strategy for a few reasons:

There’s no single algorithm to game. Most social platforms are ruled by algorithms. On Bluesky, users can pick and choose their feeds, which makes “cracking the algorithm” a less effective strategy.
You can’t buy reach. Bluesky is ad-free, so brands can’t buy their way into people’s feeds. If you want attention, you have to earn it organically.
Discovery is different: Bluesky is home to hundreds of niche communities. The trick is finding the ones that matter to your audience, then showing up often enough to become a familiar name.

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How does Bluesky differ from algorithmic platforms?

On most social platforms, an algorithm decides what you see and when. Bluesky gives that control back to users.

With customizable feeds, users can follow specific topics or interests (like gardening or astronomy) without relying on a single algorithm to determine what appears in their timeline. Anyone can create a feed, and users can pin their favorites right to their home screen.

Why are brands paying attention to Bluesky now?

Brands are paying attention to Bluesky because it’s big enough to matter, but still early enough to stand out. It’s also become a hub for journalists, researchers, and industry experts, which makes it a natural fit for thought leadership. And since there are no ads, every brand starts on equal footing, no matter the size of its budget.

It’s big enough to matter

Bluesky grew nearly 60% in 2025, ending with 41.41 million registered users, according to its own transparency report. By October 2026, that number passed 46.8 million.

Most of its growth comes in sudden bursts. After the U.S. election in November 2024, for example, people signed up by the millions.

It still trails platforms like Instagram and X (Twitter), but its user base is big enough to justify experimenting.

It’s a hub for thought leadership

Bluesky has become a natural home for journalists, researchers, tech people, founders, and other experts who like to talk shop. If you’ve got smart people internally who have something to say, Bluesky gives them a place to join the conversation and build authority.

There are no ads (yet)

Bluesky doesn’t sell ads, which changes the playing field. You’re not trying to outspend a giant brand for attention in the feed. Everyone has to earn it the old-fashioned way: by posting something people actually want to read.

“I would encourage brands to think of Bluesky as a community-building channel rather than a paid acquisition channel,” says Ben Metcalfe, Founder of BlackFire Marketing.

With no ad budgets to lean on, your growth will come from being useful in conversations, building or joining custom feeds, and, most importantly, giving people a reason to follow you.

With no ad budgets to lean on, your growth will come from being useful in conversations, building or joining custom feeds, and, most importantly, giving people a reason to follow you.

Competition is relatively low

Bluesky is growing, but it’s not nearly as crowded as platforms like LinkedIn or X.

That gives you a little more breathing room. You’re not fighting through as much branded content just to get noticed, and there’s still time to build a presence before every company in your space decides it needs one too.

Who’s actually on Bluesky?

Bluesky’s audience skews American, male, and under 35. It’s also home to a large share of journalists, researchers, and industry insiders.

Age, geography, and audience makeup

Here’s a snapshot of who’s using Bluesky in 2026, according to Similarweb’s traffic data:

What should a brand’s Bluesky content mix look like?

A strong Bluesky content mix leans on useful, conversation-worthy posts, with promotion kept to a minimum. Because its Following feed is chronological, brands also need to post consistently enough to stay visible.

The 80/20 rule: Value-first posting vs. promotion

The 80/20 rule is simple: About 80% of your posts should give people something useful, while the other 20% can promote what you sell.

On Bluesky, the “useful” side looks like:

A hot take on a trending topic in your industry
Original data or research
A short thread that explains something people find confusing
Links to helpful resources (yours or someone else’s)

GitHub is a good example. Its Bluesky feed is full of useful tips for developers, like this post about handy slash commands in GitHub Copilot. They also get bonus points for putting an actual person from the company on camera, making the content feel way more human.

Posting frequency and the chronological timeline

On Bluesky, the Following feed is chronological, so newer posts always appear at the top. That can work in your favor: If your audience is online when you post, there’s a good chance they’ll actually see it.

The downside is that it gives your content a short shelf life. Plus, there’s no algorithm to give it a second wind. As Metcalfe puts it, “Your reach comes down to when you post, how often, and whether users have chosen to follow you.”

That’s why consistency matters. You don’t need to flood the feed, but you do want a steady posting schedule that keeps you visible.

How do you build a Bluesky strategy step-by-step?

A strong Bluesky strategy starts with a clear goal, then focuses on creating useful content, joining niche communities, using custom feeds for discovery, and posting consistently enough to stay visible. Here’s how to put it together:

Define your goals
Set up your account with a custom domain handle
Plan your content around a few pillars
Lean into thought leadership
Listen and engage with communities
Write for custom feeds
Experiment with your posting cadence

1. Define your goals

Before you start posting, get clear on why you’re there.

Maybe you want to build authority in your industry, or get on the radar of journalists in your space. Whatever the goal, make it specific enough to measure later.

2. Set up your account with a custom domain handle

Every Bluesky account gets a handle that ends in .bsky.social. You can also use your own website domain instead, like @yourbrand.com.

A custom domain takes a few more steps to set up, but it proves your account is really yours. That makes impersonating your brand much harder.

From there, cover the basics: upload a profile image, write a clear bio, and link back to your website.

3. Plan your content around a few pillars

You don’t need to reinvent your entire content strategy for Bluesky. But you probably shouldn’t copy and paste everything from X either.

Start by choosing a few topics your brand can talk about regularly. These are your content pillars. They keep your feed focused, so you’re not just posting whatever comes to mind that day.

Just leave some room for what’s happening in the moment. Bluesky is built around live conversation, so part of your content mix should be flexible enough to react when something interesting bubbles up.

4. Lean into thought leadership

There are no ads on Bluesky, so brands need to earn attention by being genuinely useful or interesting. That makes expertise a good place to start.

It also helps to bring people from your company into the mix. Your founder, product lead, researcher, or developer may have a much stronger point of view than your brand account can muster on its own.

And if they’re comfortable showing up on camera, even better. Real people tend to make thought leadership feel a lot less like marketing.

5. Listen and engage with communities

Bluesky is full of niche communities, and custom feeds make them much easier to find.

Search the Feeds tab for topics related to your brand, then save a few that are active. An outdoor retailer, for example, might keep an eye on the Backpacking feed, where people swap “pics, tales, woes, tips, and fun!”

Check in on those feeds regularly. You’ll get a feel for what people care about, and maybe uncover your next content idea.

But don’t just lurk. When a conversation is a good fit for your brand, jump in with a reply or quote post.

6. Write for custom feeds

Custom feeds are a great discovery tool. If your post lands in one, people browsing that feed can see it even if they don’t follow you.

The catch is that each custom feed has its own rules for what gets in. Some are hand-picked by the person who runs them. Others pull in posts that include certain keywords or hashtags.

The Women in Small Business feed, for example, looks at posts that include the hashtags #womeninbusiness and #femaleentrepreneur. Add one of those to your post, and it could reach a whole community of business owners who’ve never heard of you.

Just don’t force it. Use custom feeds when they fit your post naturally, not on every single one.

7. Experiment with your posting cadence

Bluesky has a chronological feed, so if your audience isn’t online when you post, your content can quickly get buried.

That doesn’t mean you need to post constantly. Start with a schedule your team can realistically maintain, then experiment with different posting times and frequencies.

Perch makes this easier to pull off. Schedule posts for a few different times, then compare how each one performs. You can also use its recommended posting times to get a head start.

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What mistakes should brands avoid on Bluesky?

Most mistakes happen when brands apply their usual social playbook to Bluesky. They overlook custom feeds, go quiet for weeks at a time, and expect the kind of reach they’d get on larger platforms. Those habits can make a good strategy look like it’s failing.

Here’s what to watch out for:

Ignoring custom feeds: Custom feeds are a big part of how people discover content on Bluesky. Skip them, and you’re only talking to the people who already follow you.
Posting once and disappearing: Bluesky’s Following feed is chronological, so consistency matters. You don’t need to post around the clock, but you do need to show up often enough to stay visible.
Expecting the same reach as other platforms: Bluesky is still much smaller than TikTok or Instagram. A post might not get huge numbers, but reaching the right journalists, customers, or industry insiders can make it worthwhile.

Remember that Bluesky is still a place to experiment, and that’s part of the appeal. You have plenty of room to test, learn, and figure out what works.

How does Hootsuite help teams manage a Bluesky strategy?

Hootsuite helps teams plan and schedule Bluesky content with Perch, track brand conversations with Lumen, and find out what’s working with Wisdom.

Schedule and plan Bluesky content with Perch

Consistency matters on Bluesky, but that doesn’t mean you need to be glued to your screen all day. With , you can plan and schedule posts ahead of time, right alongside your other social channels.

You can also use recommended posting times to help figure out when your audience is most active. That gives you a starting point for testing different schedules, rather than picking times out of thin air.

Monitor sentiment and share of voice with Lumen

Lumen is Hootsuite’s social listening app. It tracks conversations across 150 million websites and 30+ social networks, including smaller ones like Bluesky.

You can track brand mentions, see how sentiment shifts over time, and find out how your share of voice stacks up against competitors.

Lumen can also feed your Bluesky strategy. For example, see which trends are picking up in your industry, then turn them into a timely Bluesky post.

Ask Wisdom what’s resonating without manual digging

To figure out what’s working on Bluesky, you usually need to dig through a few performance reports. Wisdom, Hootsuite’s social-first AI agent, lets you skip that step.

Just ask a question in plain language, like:

Which Bluesky posts got the most replies last month?
What topics are driving the most engagement?
How does our Bluesky performance compare to LinkedIn?

Wisdom pulls the answers from your data, so you can see what’s resonating and plan your next posts around it.

FAQ: Bluesky strategy

What is Bluesky used for?

Bluesky is a social media app for sharing short posts, following news, and joining conversations around shared interests. It’s especially popular with journalists, researchers, and industry experts. That makes it a useful channel for teams working in media relations, public affairs, or digital communications. It’s also a useful channel for brands that prioritize community building and thought leadership.

Does Bluesky have ads for brands?

No. Bluesky doesn’t currently have a traditional advertising platform for brands. Your social media strategy has to lean on organic reach, useful content, and community engagement instead.

How is Bluesky different from X or Threads?

Bluesky looks a lot like X or Threads, but users have more control over how they experience it. Instead of everyone relying on one main feed, Bluesky offers a chronological Following feed, an algorithmic Discover feed, and custom feeds built around specific topics or communities. It also runs on the AT Protocol, an open network that allows different social apps to connect. Bluesky originally grew out of a project started at Twitter while Jack Dorsey was CEO, but it now operates as an independent company.

How does Bluesky’s decentralized approach work?

Bluesky runs on the AT Protocol, an open system that lets different apps connect to the same social network. That open-source approach gives users more control over things like their identity, feeds, and which apps they use to access the network.

How does Bluesky’s algorithm differ from other social media platforms?

Bluesky doesn’t rely on one algorithm to decide what everyone sees. In the Bluesky app, people can switch between the Following feed, the Discover feed, and custom feeds built by other users, then pin their favorites to their home screen. For brands, that means reach depends less on cracking one algorithm and more on showing up in the right feeds.

How does Hootsuite help teams manage a Bluesky marketing strategy?

Hootsuite brings Bluesky into the same workflow as the rest of your social channels. Perch lets you plan and schedule Bluesky posts on one content calendar. Lumen monitors sentiment and share of voice across 30+ social networks, including Bluesky. And Wisdom answers questions about what’s resonating, so your strategic planning starts with real data.

Manage your Bluesky strategy with Hootsuite. Plan and schedule posts with Perch, use Lumen to monitor conversations about your brand, and ask Wisdom what to post next. Try Hootsuite free today.

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Erin Rodrigue is a writer and content strategist who knows her way around a sentence and a strategy. A former associate marketing manager at HubSpot, she covers AI, social media, and SEO to help marketers stay ahead of what’s next.

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Create. Schedule. Publish. Engage. Measure. Win.