Should business owners be on blue sky? I'm going to
break it all down in this episode of the mindful marketing podcast.
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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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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 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.
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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 pretty much right away. I mean, they do have the discover feed,
but you also cannot see 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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.
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. 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. Now if you want help choosing
platforms that work for you, I've got a freebie for you. 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.
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, my friends. I'll talk to
you later. Bye for now.