← The Mindful Marketing Podcast (Formerly Known As The Savvy Social Podcast)
The Mindful Marketing Podcast (Formerly Known As The Savvy Social Podcast)
Bluesky for Business? Here’s the Deal (And My Honest Opinion)
00:25:39
Do you really need another social media app? If you’re still figuring out if Bluesky deserves a spot in your strategy, this episode is for you. I’m breaking down everything you need to know—from its launch and user experience to the real...
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Drea
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, 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 into it myself. Resizes them for social media. So those vertical videos you see on TikTok and Reels, those all come from Magic AI inside of Riverside. It's literally one click. It spits out 10 clips. I picked the best one and away I go. Saves me so much time. If you want to get on the Riverside train, check it out today. The links in the show notes and make sure to use my code, code DREA D R E A at checkout to get 15% off your membership. All right, 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 going to talk about all the facts of Blue sky, how it started, my experience. But I also want to share with you some of my thoughts along the way about is this a good platform for. For business owners? My ultimate goal is by the end of this episode, you make the choice for yourself. Yeah, I have opinions. Okay. I'm gonna 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 want to make sure I get this right. So here's the timeline of it all. In late 2022, Elon Musk purchased X, which was Twitter at the time, for $44 billion. So it kind of started in late 2022, wrapped up by 2023, and then was renamed in July 2023. It went from being called Twitter to being called X. So we're heading 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 context, because Blue sky is a direct. A direct competitor to X, formerly known as Twitter. So Blue sky launched in February of 2023. So remember, Elon Musk purchased Twitter in, in late 2022 and the person who launched Blue sky is the former Twitter CEO, okay, Jack Dorsey. And so Blue sky is a direct competitor to that market. And I think anyone who's frustrated with the experience on X is definitely eyeballing Blue Sky. Now to put this in cont. Threads launched in July of 2023. 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. They were looking for alternatives. Threads launches in July, the same year that Blue sky launches in Febr. So we've got Blue sky in February, Threads in July. So they're neck and neck as far as launches go. But Threads has the 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. And it really helped grow the user base of Threads. When you think about the comparison, Blue sky right now has 35 million 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. 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 online drea.bsky, which is bluesky.social. okay, so that's mine. But you can also do your domain name. So if you claim it, you could do@onlinedrea.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 similar decentralized model. And I think it's going to be more successful than some of the others out there just because of ease of use. Okay. 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. 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, 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 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 want to 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. Please be wary of people who say that. Also be wary of people who say no one should be on Blue Sky. It's. The answer is almost never that simple. It is more complicated, friends, just like life. All right, 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 going to go to that platform. Journalists need a place where they source real time news and right now that's not really happening. 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 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 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. 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's 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. 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 X 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, 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. Um, specifically those in the STEM space having, having their conversations 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 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 that 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, I do think the downside and the danger of Blue sky right now is that it doesn't have that mass appeal. So if you are a brand that needs, that 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 and 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, all right? We. You turned the TV on and you saw what you saw. I can't wait to explain this to my kids because my 3 year old gets shocked when an ad plays because most of the time we're not watching the YouTube with ads. Like YouTube Kids has no ads, right? But if I play 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 and 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. I'm like, give it the five seconds, then I can skip, honey. She could not understand that this entire concept, even though she recognized that it was ad. Well, back in my day, we could not skip it. 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. 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, it's going to require subtlety when it comes to promoting your brand and your offers. We're in the day and age where we want to 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, but 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. She's asking for the stuff that she sees in the shows themselves. So, for example, Ms. Rachel has a Ms. 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 want to skip it. All right, 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, some of the pros of Blue sky is that you can see the chronological feed pretty much right away. I mean, they do have the Discover feed, but you also can see a chronological feed, which a lot of people are fighting for. Now, me, personally, me, 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 want to see what I see. Chronological feed to me sometimes means I'm seeing the same person pose over and over again, and I get tired of that. Give me something new, give me something fresh and exciting. 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 similarly to Threads, though that could be changing soon. All these platforms need to make money somehow. Okay, I do like the, 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, I love it. I think that there's 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 million users may be like, oh, that's a lot. But the niches within mean that they're 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. 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 going to see it. Like, it feels community and communal. Some of the things I don't like about Blue sky is the smaller community. 35 million users, not a lot of people. And also not really my people, especially in my professional business side. I'll talk 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 chambery. And so I'm just like, I have my handle. I posted 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. Okay. So on that account I have of, yes, stumbled across some not safe for work rabbit holes, which, you know, we're not going to 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 follow it and connected with still use Facebook. Okay. 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 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. 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 as a mindful marketer. I do not think Blue Sty is like, omg, you have to be on this platform. Okay, 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. It Blue sky to me feels like a this could be fun question mark. 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 want to look at it, at least claim your handle, take a look around, see if your other journalist buddies are on there. Okay. Because I do think journalists lists 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. 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 love to test, like my marketers out here, y' all listening to this? If you're like, I'm curious, create an account, scroll around, see what you see what you like. But I'm going to say you want to pass on it. If you didn't say yes to any of that, but especially if you already are on 2, 3, 4 platforms, please don't add Blue sky to the mix. You're going to 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, Like Facebook or Instagram all the way. Like, just don't worry about the new platforms because if your, your people aren't techie, they're probably not even on Blue sky, right? They're probably not. Um, 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. Um, 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. Back in my day, like this was of odd for our home to have multiple computers. Like 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 all are on Facebook primarily, maybe some on Instagram. Okay, 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 want to 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. 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 a quick search for your name mentioned. So if people are talking about you, especially have a unique name, you may want to see if there's any content out there. If you have a brand name. If you're a big brand, I would recommend this to like the, you know, the duolingos of the world. Go on, go on Blue Sky. Search Duolingo and see if people are talking about you. 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 huge believer that, like, you got to 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, whoa, 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 think some of the early day, early adopter vibing of these platforms is that we don't have the content calendars. And that can be a whole mood in and of itself. And so if you want to have that mood, if you want to be like, I want to see what I see, I want to 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. 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, 10 minutes of that and let's go spend 10 minutes on blue Sky. Okay? You've got to use this in moderation, otherwise you can burn out. You will burn out. Or feel extremely dissatisfied with the experience. 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, 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. See. Now, if you want help choosing platforms that work for you, I've got a freebie for you. Go to onlinedry.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. Okay? 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 examp to specific lab members. Like, oh hey Lucy, your business is about this, you could do this. Or Carol, your business about this, you could do that. Okay, 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, my friends. I'll talk to you later. Bye for now.