Bluesky is a relatively new social network, stylistically similar to Twitter but without all the bleakness and misinformation. It is, so far, the least problematic and least evil social media site I’ve seen: the librarian community, and academic / research community, and many other communities, are now rebuilding on the site. If you’d like to know more about how to make the most of Bluesky, read on.
This page is divided into a few sections, ranging from introductory to more complex. Almost all of the guidance it contains can be equally applied to organisational accounts, and individual accounts. Before we go into a bit more depth, here’s quick-start guide, and links to the six most recent posts on my blog that are Bluesky related.
Bluesky Quick-Start Guide
Posts about Bluesky
1) Fill in your profile before you do anything else, so people know who you are and that you’re not a bot!
2) Write an introductory post or two, saying hello and perhaps talking about what you’re on Bluesky to chat about
3) THEN start following people, so when they get that notification and click on your profile, they’re greeted by your bio, your first couple of posts, and have a reason to follow you back.
4) Be proactive in following people - look out for useful Starter Packs, Lists and Feeds (more on all of which below) to find accounts of interest. By default Bluesky will only show you posts from the people you follow - there’s no centralised algorithm to endlessly fill your feed with uninvited content, which is wonderful but takes some getting used to - so unless you find people there’ll be nothing in your feed
5) Like posts, reply, join conversations - Bluesky works best when you really engage. Give it time, and have fun!
If you would like training on using Bluesky for your organisation or brand, I run online workshops in this area: a 1-hour basic introduction, a 2-hour in-depth session, and a half-day full strategic course on social media which covers other platforms as well as Bluesky. Get in touch if you’d like to book one.
The Researcher’s Guide to Bluesky
>> Here, then, is the Researcher’s Guide To Bluesky.
It’s published on my library’s blog rather than on here because I wanted it to be seen as an ‘official’ output of the Library & Archives. I promoted it via staff newsletters, asking the Central Comms Team to add it to their Bluesky guidance, and of course going back to each and every York academic I’d spoken to about the platform to share a link with them.
I also used it to launch the library’s Bluesky account. I thought this would be good - you can’t beat being USEFUL to hit the ground running on a new social media platform - but considering we had no followers and Bluesky doesn’t have a centralised algorithm to push content towards people, I’m fairly stunned about how much engagement we got. Within three weeks of posting a link to the guide (as part of a larger thread outlining its key points) and we’ve had over 600 reposts and 750+ Likes - plus so, so many replies, pins, and messages of thanks.
How to get started on Academic bluesky
>> Here, then, is How To Get Started With Academic Bluesky.
The above is a shorter version of the first guide, for the LSE Impact Blog for Social Sciences - it has the York-policy-specific parts omitted, and is generally leaner. It also benefits from some helpful suggestions given to me by Michael Taser, the Managing Editor (the final paragraph in particular) and in general I prefer this edition of the guide.
The Library Guide to Bluesky
>> Here, then, is the Library Guide to Bluesky.
The edition is published here on this blog because it’s written ‘as me’, rather than as the library itself. This is a culmination of what I’ve learned and applied from writing the other guides, with some advice on actual content thrown in there as well.
a bluesky guide for academic departments and professional services
>> Here, then, is the University Guide to Bluesky.
I pitched a guide to the Times Higher (for whom I’ve written a couple of pieces previously), again on the grounds that reach will be higher there than here, with my target audience. This version is organisational rather than individual, and very much Higher Education focused - although much of it could apply across the cultural sector.
Taking experiences and chunking them up into (hopefully useful) guidance for others has always been one of my favourite things, so I’ve actually really enjoyed this whole Bluesky business… One reply I got to a Bluesky post sums up why it’s worth the time to write these:
“So appreciated!!! From little tips to engagement and the starter packs. You have no idea how helpful this is when you’re doing this in addition to the ‘day job’ but also trying to inform/advocate for your colleagues/researchers that you support in a newish area of social media! Bravo!!”