With all the controversy surrounding Elon Musk, people are abandoning X (formerly Twitter) in droves — and I’m one of them. I’ve tried several alternatives over the last few months and I’ve landed on Bluesky as my favorite. It isn’t perfect, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons.
Having now used Bluesky every day for months, I’ve learned how to make it better. If you’re a Bluesky newbie, here are the things you should be doing to make it as great as it can be. There’s nothing overly complicated here — just a few things worth doing if you have the time.
View trending topics and weigh in
If you want to keep on the pulse of what’s going on, I highly recommend watching the trending topics — and not just that but also getting involved with those conversations. Weigh in on the topics of the day. The more you put into Bluesky, the more you’ll get out of it.
Dave Parrack / Foundry
Staying on top of trending topics has several benefits:
- You can keep abreast of what’s happening in the world (or at least the things that are important to Bluesky users).
- You’re likely to discover accounts to follow, as seeing what people say about issues of the day is a quick way to see if they’re a fit.
- Weighing in on trending topics is likely to lead to more engagement and more people who follow you. These are popular subjects, after all, so there are more eyes on participating posts than usual.
Find and follow like-minded accounts
Social media platforms, especially the micro-blogging ones like Bluesky, are only as good as the people you follow. If you don’t follow the right topics and accounts, it just isn’t going to be that interesting. Fortunately, there are several ways to find accounts worth following.
The first thing to do is search for the people you previously followed elsewhere. You can use tools like Sky Follower Bridge to migrate your social connections from X, Facebook, Threads, Instagram, and TikTok to Bluesky — but I recommend taking this opportunity to start fresh and only follow the accounts you really want to follow.
Dave Parrack / Foundry
Use the Search tab to search for specific users and/or follow suggested accounts. You can also follow curated feeds that other people have created. The key is to search for feeds that interest you, then follow the specific (most interesting) accounts within those feeds.
You can also find interesting accounts by exploring the trending topics mentioned above. From the Search tab, click on any trending topic that interests you — there you’ll see all kinds of relevant accounts. I recommend clicking on their profiles and scrolling through their past posts to make sure you actually want to follow them.
Customize your feeds and create lists
Bluesky doesn’t offer you just one feed of posts made by the people you follow. You can actually customize your feeds and even create lists. By default, everyone has a Following feed that only contains posts from the accounts you follow. But there’s much more beyond that.
Dave Parrack / Foundry
Start by clicking the Feeds tab in the left-hand sidebar and you’ll see a list of feeds you’re already following and feeds waiting to be discovered. You can scroll down to see feeds recommended by Bluesky or search for feeds around specific topics.
You also have lists, which are basically feeds waiting to happen. When you create a list, you give it a name and description, then add accounts that fit the list’s niche. Not only do you get a specialized feed, you can pin it to the top of your homepage and share it with others too.
Engage with the people you like
Social media isn’t just about following people and (hopefully) having them follow you back. To get the most out of it, you need to actually engage with people one way or another — the more you participate in the Bluesky community, the more rewarding it’ll be.
Dave Parrack / Foundry
Post your thoughts regularly, whether on trending topics or more niche conversations. Reply to other people’s posts, whether to back up their thoughts or respectfully disagree. Repost and/or like posts that you want to publicly acknowledge as being of value.
Mute or block people you don’t like
On the one hand, open discourse is important and you shouldn’t intentionally dodge all viewpoints you disagree with. Echo chambers help no one. But some voices are so hurtful, hateful, or hostile that they have no constructive value. Others are so nonsensical or uninteresting that you just don’t want them in your feeds. Fortunately, you can block them all.
Dave Parrack / Foundry
Click on the profile of the account you want to mute or block, then click the three-dot menu to the right of the Follow button. You’ll see a range of options, including the ability to mute or block the account.
Muting someone means you’ll stop seeing their posts on Bluesky but they’ll still be able to see your posts. Blocking prevents all interactions, meaning neither account can see each other’s posts. (Note that while muting is private, blocking is public.)
Mute triggering words and tags
If you find yourself triggered by certain words or phrases, you can mute the offending terms so they never show up in your feeds. You can actually mute both words and hashtags, which will afford yourself a much more pleasant Bluesky experience overall.
Dave Parrack / Foundry
Click Settings in the left-hand sidebar, then click Muted words & tags. You’ll see the option to mute certain words and tags for a certain length of time, ranging from 24 hours to “Forever.”
Be careful not to mute too many words — or extremely common words — as that will completely kill the Bluesky experience. Instead, choose very specific words or phrases that you never want to see. (These may or may not include “Elon Musk” and “Twitter”!)
Spruce up your profile as much as you can
If you haven’t done so already, spend some time filling out your Bluesky profile. Think of it as your shop window and spruce it up accordingly.
Start by choosing a Display Name that informs people who you are. This can be literally anything, so I opted for a shortened version of my actual name. But you can also use your full name, nickname, gamer tag, brand named, or whatever else (as long as it isn’t offensive).
Dave Parrack / Foundry
Next, add a suitable picture that shows the real you — unless you need to hide your true identity for some reason, in which case some people opt to use avatars or fictional characters. It depends on what vibe you’re trying to give off. You can also add a background image as a shorthand for who you are and/or what you’re interested in.
Last but not least, write a short description that sums up who you are and what you do. I recommend keeping it succinct so as not to overwhelm people viewing your profile with too much information, much of which they won’t want or need to know.
While Bluesky isn’t perfect, I guarantee that if you do all of the above, you’ll enjoy a more satisfying time on the X/Twitter alternative.
Further reading: Our newbie’s guide to Bluesky
Author: Dave Parrack, Contributor, PCWorld
Dave Parrack has been writing about technology since 2007. He has also been an editor, covering consumer tech news and seeking to help people better understand the devices and services they use daily. He has bylines at MakeUseOf, SlashGear, and New Atlas, and has produced thousands of articles in a long and varied career. He uses Windows (somewhat begrudgingly), but actually prefers his Chromebook. He thinks AI may just change the world, but hasn't yet decided if it will be for the better or worse.