With all of the controversy surrounding Elon Musk, individuals are abandoning X (previously Twitter) in droves — and I’m one in all them. I’ve tried a number of options over the previous couple of months and I’ve landed on Bluesky as my favourite. It isn’t good, however the pros definitely outweigh the cons.
Having now used Bluesky each day for months, I’ve discovered easy methods to make it higher. If you’re a Bluesky beginner, listed below are the issues you ought to be doing to make it as nice as it may be. There’s nothing overly difficult right here — just some issues price doing when you’ve got the time.
View trending subjects and weigh in
If you need to carry on the heart beat of what’s happening, I extremely suggest watching the trending subjects — and never simply that but in addition getting concerned with these conversations. Weigh in on the subjects of the day. The extra you place into Bluesky, the extra you’ll get out of it.
Dave Parrack / Foundry
Staying on prime of trending subjects has a number of advantages:
- You can maintain abreast of what’s taking place on the planet (or not less than the issues which are necessary to Bluesky customers).
- You’re more likely to uncover accounts to comply with, as seeing what individuals say about problems with the day is a fast method to see in the event that they’re a match.
- Weighing in on trending subjects is more likely to result in extra engagement and extra individuals who comply with you. These are well-liked topics, in any case, so there are extra eyes on taking part posts than common.
Find and comply with like-minded accounts
Social media platforms, particularly the micro-blogging ones like Bluesky, are solely pretty much as good because the individuals you comply with. If you don’t comply with the precise subjects and accounts, it simply isn’t going to be that attention-grabbing. Fortunately, there are a number of methods to seek out accounts price following.
The very first thing to do is seek for the individuals you beforehand adopted elsewhere. You can use instruments like Sky Follower Bridge emigrate your social connections from X, Facebook, Threads, Instagram, and TikTook to Bluesky — however I like to recommend taking this chance to start out contemporary and solely comply with the accounts you actually need to comply with.
Dave Parrack / Foundry
Use the Search tab to seek for particular customers and/or comply with advised accounts. You may also comply with curated feeds that different individuals have created. The secret’s to seek for feeds that curiosity you, then comply with the particular (most attention-grabbing) accounts inside these feeds.
You may also discover attention-grabbing accounts by exploring the trending subjects talked about above. From the Search tab, click on on any trending subject that pursuits you — there you’ll see all types of related accounts. I like to recommend clicking on their profiles and scrolling by means of their previous posts to be sure you really need to comply with them.
Customize your feeds and create lists
Bluesky doesn’t give you only one feed of posts made by the individuals you comply with. You can really customise your feeds and even create lists. By default, everybody has a Following feed that solely incorporates posts from the accounts you comply with. But there’s way more past that.
Dave Parrack / Foundry
Start by clicking the Feeds tab within the left-hand sidebar and also you’ll see a listing of feeds you’re already following and feeds ready to be found. You can scroll right down to see feeds really helpful by Bluesky or seek for feeds round particular subjects.
You even have lists, that are principally feeds ready to occur. When you create a listing, you give it a reputation and outline, then add accounts that match the record’s area of interest. Not solely do you get a specialised feed, you possibly can pin it to the highest of your homepage and share it with others too.
Engage with the individuals you want
Social media isn’t nearly following individuals and (hopefully) having them comply with you again. To get essentially the most out of it, it is advisable to really have interaction with individuals a method or one other — the extra you take part within the Bluesky neighborhood, the extra rewarding it’ll be.
Dave Parrack / Foundry
Post your ideas repeatedly, whether or not on trending subjects or extra area of interest conversations. Reply to different individuals’s posts, whether or not to again up their ideas or respectfully disagree. Repost and/or like posts that you simply need to publicly acknowledge as being of worth.
Mute or block individuals you don’t like
On the one hand, open discourse is necessary and also you shouldn’t deliberately dodge all viewpoints you disagree with. Echo chambers assist nobody. But some voices are so hurtful, hateful, or hostile that they don’t have any constructive worth. Others are so nonsensical or uninteresting that you simply simply don’t need them in your feeds. Fortunately, you possibly can block all of them.
Dave Parrack / Foundry
Click on the profile of the account you need to mute or block, then click on the three-dot menu to the precise of the Follow button. You’ll see a variety of choices, together with the power to mute or block the account.
Muting somebody means you’ll cease seeing their posts on Bluesky however they’ll nonetheless be capable to see your posts. Blocking prevents all interactions, which means neither account can see one another’s posts. (Note that whereas muting is personal, blocking is public.)
If you end up triggered by sure phrases or phrases, you possibly can mute the offending phrases so that they by no means present up in your feeds. You can really mute each phrases and hashtags, which can afford your self a way more nice Bluesky expertise general.
Dave Parrack / Foundry
Click Settings within the left-hand sidebar, then click on Muted phrases & tags. You’ll see the choice to mute sure phrases and tags for a sure size of time, starting from 24 hours to “Forever.”
Be cautious to not mute too many phrases — or extraordinarily widespread phrases — as that may fully kill the Bluesky expertise. Instead, select very particular phrases or phrases that you simply by no means need to see. (These might or might not embody “Elon Musk” and “Twitter”!)
Spruce up your profile as a lot as you possibly can
If you haven’t achieved so already, spend a while filling out your Bluesky profile. Think of it as your store window and spruce it up accordingly.
Start by selecting a Display Name that informs individuals who you’re. This may be actually something, so I opted for a shortened model of my precise identify. But you may as well use your full identify, nickname, gamer tag, model named, or no matter else (so long as it isn’t offensive).
Dave Parrack / Foundry
Next, add an acceptable image that reveals the actual you — until it is advisable to cover your true id for some motive, wherein case some individuals choose to make use of avatars or fictional characters. It will depend on what vibe you’re making an attempt to present off. You may also add a background picture as a shorthand for who you’re and/or what you’re focused on.
Last however not least, write a brief description that sums up who you’re and what you do. I like to recommend conserving it succinct in order to not overwhelm individuals viewing your profile with an excessive amount of info, a lot of which they gained’t need or must know.
While Bluesky isn’t good, I assure that for those who do all the above, you’ll take pleasure in a extra satisfying time on the X/Twitter various.
Further studying: Our newbie’s guide to Bluesky