Bluesky for Business? Here’s the Deal (And My Honest Opinion)

Andréa Jones [00:00:00]:
Should business owners be on blue sky? I'm going to break it all down in this episode of the mindful marketing podcast. But first, a word from our sponsor. Riverside is the all in one podcast recording and editing tool that I use for this Right Here show. I use it to edit not only the audio in the video, it is like chef's kiss, magical, making the entire process so, so easy. Plus I love their magic AI clips. Their little AI robot in the background pulls out the most impactful moments of the episodes without me having to comb through and do it myself, resizes them for social media. So those vertical all come from magic AI inside of Riverside. It's literally one click.

Andréa Jones [00:00:48]:
It spits out 10 clips. I pick the best one and away I go saves me so much time. If you wanna get on the Riverside train, check it out today, the links in the show notes and make sure to use my code DREA, D R E A, at checkout to get 15% off your membership. Alright, let's talk about Blue Sky because my big question is, do you really need another social media app? I mean, there's so many to choose from. And so in this episode, I am gonna talk about all the facts of Blue Sky, how it started, my experience. But I also wanna share with you some of my thoughts along the way about, is this a good platform for business owners? My ultimate goal is by the end of this episode, you make the choice for yourself. Yeah. I have opinions.

Andréa Jones [00:01:32]:
Okay. I've gotta share them. Okay. But I also want you to look at this objectively and try to figure out, is this a platform for you. So let's start at the beginning. And the context here is important. The timeline here is important. I've got notes that I'm looking at as I am recording this episode because I wanna make sure I get this right.

Andréa Jones [00:01:53]:
So here's the timeline of it all. In, late, 2022, Elon Musk purchased X, which was Twitter at the time, for $44,000,000,000 So it kind of started in late twenty twenty two, wrapped up by 2023, and then was renamed, in July 2023. It went from being called Twitter to being called x. So we're headed up on the two year anniversary of this, and I'm still over here calling it Twitter. But anyways, not me dead naming, x. Anyways, so that is the the context because Blue Sky is a direct, a direct competitor to x, formerly known as Twitter. So Blue Sky launched in February of twenty twenty three. So remember, Elon Musk purchased Twitter in in late twenty twenty two.

Andréa Jones [00:02:57]:
And the person who launched Blue Sky is the former Twitter CEO. Okay? Jack Dorsey. And so BlueSky is a direct competitor to that market. And I think Addy1, who's frustrated with the experience on X, is definitely eyeballing BlueSky. Now to put this in context, Threads launched in July of twenty twenty three. So all of this is happening at the same time. We've got this text focused, short form social media platform all emerging. So people are getting upset with their experience on x, namely Elon Musk being a lot of reasons why people were getting upset with that.

Andréa Jones [00:03:41]:
They were looking for alternatives. Threads launches, in July, the same year that Blue Sky launches in February. So we've got Blue Sky in February, Threads in July. So they're neck and neck as far as launches go, but the Reds has a power of meta behind it. Blue Sky does not. So the big thing about Threads was that you especially in the early days, you log in with your Instagram account and you import all of your followers over there. You import your bio, your photo. You can still do that to this day.

Andréa Jones [00:04:14]:
And it really helped grow the user base of threads. When you think about the comparison, Blue Sky right now has 35,000,000 users. Threads has over a hundred million and growing. So Threads is definitely the larger platform of the two. However, people also do not like Meta, especially right now. And, the interesting changes they've made in regards to community safety, a lot of people are not liking Meta, AKA Facebook, Instagram threads. So then we have this alternative of Blue Sky. And the thing about Blue Sky right now is that the vibes are very similar to early day x, early day threads.

Andréa Jones [00:04:53]:
Okay? It's this weird kind of nerdy energy. The early adopters are hanging out. The people who are too avant garde for x or threads are hanging out there, and it doesn't feel corporate. There aren't any ads. It feels like everyone is on equal footing, and it feels like less performative than some of the other platforms are feeling right now in my experience. Now the interesting thing about Blue Sky as well is the way that they handle their username. So, yes, you can get your username. So mine is onlinedreya.bsky, which is bluesky.social.

Andréa Jones [00:05:34]:
K. So that's mine. But you can also do your domain name. So if you claim it, you could do at onlinedreya.com, which I think is pretty clever, especially when you think about, claiming names and how other people can swipe up your name. You can basically get your domain name at Blue Sky. Their whole goal with this is have a a similar decentralized model, and I think it's gonna be more successful than some of the others out there just because of ease of use. K? Do you feel like some of the others, it's not easy to use, and this is. And I think that is very key for an emerging social media platform.

Andréa Jones [00:06:10]:
It's too complicated. And I think that's one of the reasons why Instagram is losing popularity right now. It's too dang complicated. We have way too many ways that we can create content and post, and they're constantly changing things around on us. You know, for instance, this this month, they're they're removing the notes feature after spending years trying to figure it out. It's just gone now. But we still have you know, we have stories. We have direct messages.

Andréa Jones [00:06:34]:
We have, reels. We have carousels. We have static posts. We have broadcast channels. There are so many different ways you can create content on Instagram. I think it's confusing, especially for someone just coming into the platform. Whereas you look at a platform like Blue Sky, and I would say that the strategy for Blue Sky is very similar to threads. When you look at Blue Sky, it is very simple.

Andréa Jones [00:06:56]:
In its simplest form, you log in, you can post immediately a text based post, and away you go. You also log in, and you're immediately served, content, which is, I think, the thing that made TikTok so powerful is its algorithm. So you start scrolling, you look at stuff, and Blue Sky goes, maybe you wanna see more of this. Okay? Now that is the background on what is Blue Sky. Let's talk about who is on Blue Sky because it's not for everyone. So I'm not going to come out and say everyone should be on Blue Sky. Really, please be wary of people who say that. Also be wary of people who say no one should be on Blue Sky.

Andréa Jones [00:07:38]:
It's the answer is almost never that simple. It is more complicated, friends, just like life. Alright. So who is on Blue Sky? Journalists. I think journalists are having a great time on that platform, especially as the antithesis to X. And I think that more and more journalists are gonna go to that platform. Journalists need a place where they source real time news. And right now, that's not really happening.

Andréa Jones [00:08:05]:
I do think X still is the place for that, but it's almost like journalists are using it begrudgingly, trying to use threads. But the way that Meta handles real time news is abhorrent, and and you can't see real time news. They they actively reduce the chatter around real time news stories per their own like, they they've admitted to this. They have admitted to doing this. I remember distinctly, last year when president Trump was on his campaign trail and there was an assassination attempt. And I was on threads at the time, did not see it. Somebody told me. So I went to threads again to try to look for it, could not find any information.

Andréa Jones [00:08:45]:
So I actually went to x. And immediately, like, right I didn't even search. Just right when I opened it up, there were journalists kind of sharing and resharing, information about that real time event. Right? And so when I think about real time events, there is not really a great social platform for that right now, and x was that. And the amount of people that have left the platform make it very challenging. So I do think Blue Sky could potentially win in that category. I also see Blue Sky in the art category, and this is where I got myself in trouble, y'all. So I am on Blue Sky as online, Drea, of course, but I also have my alternative account that nobody knows about over on Blue Sky.

Andréa Jones [00:09:28]:
And, y'all, my eyeballs just lingered a second too long on some Not Safe for Work content. And when I tell you Blue Sky picked that up in a hot minute and now I see it all the time, I'm like, oh my gosh, it reminds me of early days acts and Tumblr, where they're just straight up porn accounts, basically. And you're like, this on the Internet for free, people putting their whole selves out here. And so I now see that on my Blue Sky, and I'm like, okay, this is the vibe over here. And I think that there is a space for that sort of art, adult art as well in Blue Sky, but also other sorts of arts. I think artists, they really don't like the restrictions around Instagram. I also think that there is this inherent, danger of your artwork being stolen or copied on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, and so artists are looking at platforms like Blue Sky for that. I also see a lot of tech, STEM, and education, companies on Blue Sky as well, specifically those in the STEM space having having their conversations.

Andréa Jones [00:10:38]:
And then anyone related to politics or cultural movements, I do see on Blue Sky as well. What I don't see on Blue Sky is a lot of mainstream mainstream brands, mainstream accounts. Blue Sky has this kind of underground vibe, kind of like this hipster, like, cool kids club vibe. And so I don't see a lot of the mainstream brands being active over there. You know? Like your Starbucks, your your, Sephora, your Chipotle, like your Wendy's. Like, I don't really see them being quite active on those platforms just yet, most likely because the platform itself isn't mainstream. The users the the people on the platform, the accounts aren't mainstream. And so while other platforms like Facebook and Instagram, just by sheer number of users have mass appeal.

Andréa Jones [00:11:29]:
I do think the downside and the danger of Blue Sky right now is that it it doesn't have that mass appeal. So if you are a brand that needs that, you may be disappointed by your experience in the platform. I do think the other thing about people on Blue Sky is that similar to threads, hard selling is a no go. And I actually think this is more of a cultural movement in how we're using social media, just generally speaking. It kind of reminds me of, TV ads. So back in my day, back in my day, we didn't have no Netflix. Alright? We you turned the TV on and you saw what you saw. I I can't wait to explain this to my kids because my three year old gets shocked when an ad plays because most of the time, we're not watching the YouTube with ads.

Andréa Jones [00:12:18]:
Like, YouTube Kids has no ads. Right? But if I play a YouTube video she asked for a video of frogs the other day. I played the YouTube video of the frogs, and she was like, mom, an ad. Skip it. And, like, could not wait the five seconds so that I could skip the ad. She was like, oh my gosh. Skip it. Skip it.

Andréa Jones [00:12:33]:
I'm like, give it the five seconds, then I can skip, honey. She could not understand this entire concept even though she recognized that it was ad. Well, back in my day, we could not skip it. K. We could not skip it. And so brands had to get creative in this new day and age. Right? Brands are getting creative about how they can reach their people. If nobody's watching ads, if they're skipping it as soon as possible, we literally scroll past a sponsored post on Facebook.

Andréa Jones [00:12:57]:
How do they get in front of people? It requires subtlety. And so I think with a platform like Blue Sky and, subsequently, all social platforms is gonna require subtlety when it comes to promoting your brand and your offers. We're in the day and age where we wanna skip the ads actively. Whereas, you know, back in my day, we sat there and watched the ads. Or when the ads came on, we went and did whatever chores, went to the bathroom break. We were watching the ads. And especially as kids, we were asking our parents for the stuff we saw in ads. My kid doesn't do that because she doesn't see ads hardly ever.

Andréa Jones [00:13:31]:
She's asking for the stuff, that she sees in the shows themselves. So for example, miss Rachel has a miss Rachel doll now. The entire show is the product, and now my kid wants the product. And I think business owners will be smart to, use that to their advantage and start thinking outside of the box when it comes to advertising. So whether you're thinking about Blue Sky or other platforms, start thinking that way. But in general, Blue Sky is more of this underground vibe. And I think if you don't have a community that has the underground vibe, you may wanna skip it. Alright.

Andréa Jones [00:14:08]:
Here are a few other things to think about about, Blue Sky if you're considering it for your business, and then I'll share my own thoughts and opinions in full at the end. But one of some of the pros of Blue Sky is that you can see the chronological feed

Speaker B [00:14:24]:
pretty much right away. I mean, they do have the discover feed, but you also cannot see

Andréa Jones [00:14:24]:
a chronological feed, which a chronological feed, which a lot of people are fighting for. Now me, personally, I don't care. I like a good algorithmic experience. I think just like anything, you can have a bad algorithmic experience. But in my opinion, I I wanna see what I see. Chronological feed to me sometimes means I'm seeing the same person post over and over again, and I get tired of that. Give me something new. Give me something fresh and exciting.

Andréa Jones [00:14:51]:
My personal opinion. But if you are craving a chronological feed, that's just part of the charm of Blue Sky. Blue Sky also has no ads, similar to leads or threads, though that could be changing soon. All of these platforms seem to make money somehow. K? I do like the, idea of the custom domains that you can claim, you know, gives you some control over your brand, over your story, over your your IP, if you will. I do love the early adapter vibe. I think that's one of the reasons why I'm, like, a social media, like, fan because I love the early adapter vibe. Like, give it to me.

Andréa Jones [00:15:23]:
I love it. I think that there's an energy about it by being some of the first and being excited about something. And I like that because it's not crowded, you know, 35,000,000 users may be like, oh, that's a lot. But the niches within that, mean that there's stronger connections. And that's really why I love threads in the beginning and why I still love it now is that it feels like I have more of a touch point, a pulse point with real people. It doesn't feel curated. You know? It doesn't feel like someone created a content calendar and planned this post three months ago. You know? Like, sometimes that starts feeling like, yeah, it just feels too curated.

Andréa Jones [00:15:58]:
And so I like that it's like you post it and then the people that are reading it, I'm not I'm like, they I know that they're reading it. Right? This isn't just, you know, some social media manager somewhere or, you know, it wasn't scheduled through, like, a scheduling tool, and they're never gonna see it. Like, it feels community and communal. Some of the things I don't like about Blue Sky is the smaller, community. 35,000,000 users, not a lot of people, and also not really my people, especially in my professional business side. I was talking about my alt account in a sec, but my professional side, I don't see a lot of online business owners on there. It feels like the ones that are on there are really digging in and trying to make a presence there, but, I just don't see a lot of adaption from my people. Some marketers are on there talking about it, but it's mostly marketers talking about Blue Sky, which feels a little echo chamber y.

Andréa Jones [00:16:51]:
And so I'm just like, I have my handle. I post it to say I'm not posting, and that's that on that. Now on my alt account, this is the account that I use for reading my, naughty, romance novels. K? So on that account, I have, yes, stumbled across some, not safe for work rabbit holes, which, you know, we're not gonna talk about that. But I am seeing a lot of authors over there, so that's the art side of it. But again, the authors are there promoting their books. I don't really see a lot of conversation happening, and that's where I think the beauty of that platform will be. Many of the authors that I followed and connected with still use Facebook.

Andréa Jones [00:17:30]:
K. So I know people like to talk on Facebook, but a lot of people are still on that platform and using it very actively. And so even to that demographic, like, if I were to, you know, talk with an author about where they should be, I'd go, probably Facebook because a lot of the people who read are active on Facebook. The people on Blue Sky, especially, like, you know, mass market romance novels, not so much. I also think that Blue Sky doesn't have a lot of the features that some of the other platforms have. This is a pro and a con when I think about it. So similarly to threads, there isn't, like, a direct message feature. And then as a business, there's not a lot of business tools available.

Andréa Jones [00:18:11]:
And so while it's not Instagram with, like, feature overwhelm, some of the features and experience is a little bit lacking. There's no monetization yet either. If you're a content creator, and you're creating content on there, they don't have a plan for that just yet. But it, like I said, has that underground, like, warehouse vibe feeling, especially since it was invite only in the early days. Now it's open and available to everyone, but it does still have that feeling. Okay. So let's move on. My thoughts.

Andréa Jones [00:18:41]:
As a mindful marketer, I do not think Blue Sky is like, o m g. You have to be on this platform. K? I did think that about threads, and I'm very biased about that. But I did think that about threads, and I made a lot of content about threads. I created a course on threads. I'm on threads every day. Okay? I love it. Blue sky to me feels like a, this could be fun, question mark.

Andréa Jones [00:19:03]:
You know, like, I feel like if you have, the time to do this, then I'm like, yes, explore the platform. I think if you miss x, you know, if you miss that early days Twitter experience, it could be for you. If you are a journalist, to me, I'm like, okay. Yeah. You may wanna look at it. At least claim your handle, take a look around, see if your other journalist buddies are on there. K? Because I do think journalists are craving that space, and it could be them for that. I also think if you're an artist, especially, of the adult variety, check out Blue Sky.

Andréa Jones [00:19:40]:
There's a lot of, adult entertainers on that platform, it seems, because of their, kind of decentralized model. They're not really, cracking down on that, whereas other platforms, especially Meta, is really strict about that. And then if you left a task, like my marketer is out here, y'all listening to this. If you're like, I'm curious. Yeah. Create an account. Scroll around. See what you see what you like.

Andréa Jones [00:20:02]:
But I'm gonna say, you wanna pass on it if you didn't say yes to any of that. But especially if you already are on two, three, four platforms, please don't add Blue Sky to the mix. You're you're gonna overwhelm yourself. And right now, I just don't see it having the return on investment. Okay? I also think you should pass if your community is not techie. There are a lot of people I work with where they're like, my community is not really techie. Then I'm like, Facebook or Instagram all the way. Like, just don't worry about the new platforms.

Andréa Jones [00:20:32]:
Because if your your people aren't techie, they're probably not even on Blue Sky. Right? They're probably not. I'll use my mom as an example. Hopefully, she doesn't listen to this. My mom is what I would consider a pretty, like, medium tech person. She grew up, you know, in the tech world. I say grew up, but, like, she, used to work for IBM. I remember she had, like, multiple computers at home back in the day.

Andréa Jones [00:20:57]:
Again, back in my day, like, this was kind of odd for our home to have multiple computers. Like, when I back in my day when I was growing up, you had the one the one computer everyone used. We had multiple because of my mom's job at IBM. We had those IBM computers, which are they no longer exist. But anyways, so I consider my mom a medium tech person. She's been on on Facebook for a while and just got an Instagram account. I would not tell her to get on threads or blue sky at this moment. Her people are on Facebook primarily, maybe some on Instagram.

Andréa Jones [00:21:29]:
K? So if your community is the same, skip it. And then if you're feeling burnt out, like, if you're like, OMG, I'm listening to this episode regretfully. If she says yes, I'm gonna scream into my pillow. Like, if that's you, just skip it. I'm giving you permission. Go take a nap and drink some water instead. Okay? Now if you are curious and you're like, I don't know if I wanna go all the way in on this yet, but maybe, the very least, go claim your name, claim your handle. I always say that for every new platform.

Andréa Jones [00:21:57]:
Just claim your name. I mean, this isn't new new, but it is growing, and so I think that could be helpful. You can also do helpful. You can also do a quick search for your name engine. So if people are talking about you, especially if you have a unique name, you may wanna see if there's any content out there, if you have a brand name. If you're a big brand, I would recommend this too, like the, you know, the Duolingo's of the world. Go on go on Blue Sky. Search Duolingo and see people are talking about you.

Andréa Jones [00:22:22]:
And with any new platform, I just recommend being a lurker first. I know there's an instinct to, like, go and create your first content, but I'm a huge believer that, like, you gotta get a feel for the room. To me, it feels like, you know, going to, like, a backyard barbecue and just, like, coming in and going without reading the room and the vibe, just being like, hey, party, taking your shirt off. And it's like, woah. You don't know if it's that kind of party. You know what I mean? So read the dang room, lurk, scroll, engage, look for some of your favorite content creators and brands and see if they're on there, what are they posting. Just explore a little bit, and then don't overthink it. I think some of the early day, early adopter vibiness of these platforms is that we don't have the content calendars.

Andréa Jones [00:23:05]:
And, that can be a whole mood in and of itself. And so if you wanna have that mood, if you wanna be like, I wanna see what I see, I wanna post what I post, then that could be a great exploration for you. As with any new platform, unless you're a marketer, marketers, we have different rules, but as with any new platform, I recommend carving out 10 to 20% of your time to spend on that platform. Okay? So marketing time, even just social media time, let's say you give yourself an hour a week. Okay. Let's carve out, you know, ten minutes of that, and let's go spend ten minutes on Blue Sky. Okay? You've gotta use this in moderation. Otherwise, you can burn out, you will burn out, or feel extremely dissatisfied with the experience.

Andréa Jones [00:23:49]:
I'll end with this thought. You don't have to join everything. You don't have to be on everything. You don't have to be everywhere. It's nice to know that Blue Sky's out there. It's nice that you're listening to this and going, I feel informed. But if by the end of this episode, you go, I'm gonna pass. Good.

Andréa Jones [00:24:04]:
You did it. You did the thing you came to do. Do not let FOMO pull you into a platform that you don't need. But if you do feel inspired to be on Blue Sky, go for it. Be excited. Be curious. Go in with no expectations and enjoy the process and see what you see. Now if you want help choosing platforms that work for you, I've got a freebie for you.

Andréa Jones [00:24:28]:
Go to onlinejoy.com/platform. And in that platform guide, I will help you decide using some information which platform is good for you. And if you need hand holding to help, that's what we do in the lab. K? So, yes, I provide a lot of free resources like this one, but in the lab, I get so specific with my my members. You get unlimited community support. So on our, What's the Scoop call for this month, I was literally giving examples to specific lab members like, oh, hey. Lucy, your business is about this. You could do this.

Andréa Jones [00:24:59]:
Or Carol, your business about this. You could do that. K? So if you want that level of support, unlimited strategy support from myself, come on in and join us in the lab. It is, like, my favorite place to hang out on the Internet. Can I say that? I'm very biased clearly, but I love it in there. Anyways, I will see you next week with another episode. Until then, make sure you rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, and Spotify helps keep us in the top 100 marketing podcasts. And that's all because of your support,

Speaker B [00:25:32]:
my friends. I'll talk to you later. Bye for now.