Bluesky thinking: a higher ed social media opportunity

The social media landscape is ever-evolving, and Bluesky is rapidly gaining traction as the platform giving both Musk and Zuckerberg a run for their money. In recent weeks we've seen brands ditch X/Twitter in favour of a new (well not that new) space, joining the growing millions doing the same.

Any platform user figures are bound to become dated the moment this article is published, so I'll simply link to Theo Sanderson's counter https://bsky-users.theo.io/ if you want to follow live growth on the platform.

New space, new opportunities

I’m normally someone who would suggest the wait and watch approach when it comes to new social media platforms, but even I'm thinking this one is worth considering sooner rather than later.

Built as a decentralised and community-driven network, Bluesky offers interesting opportunities for universities looking to engage with students, alumni, and the broader academic community. If they are smart, there's a chance here to really focus on audience interests, rather than it just becoming another dumping ground for every single university news story.

If you’ve been on the fence about diving in, here are three reasons why your institution should (at the very least) claim your brand account on Bluesky today.??You'll be joining the 65 (as at 2 December 2024) UK higher education organisations who've already created their profile.

Opportunity 1: Brand Consistency

I've conducted many social media audits, mapping the proliferation of social media accounts that exist within each university's digital footprint. With every brand name variation you can imagine for a university, accounts can run into the thousands.

Not only does your organisation have the opportunity to get ahead of this by communicating an approach to account naming (for accounts acting on behalf of the organisation), there is one particular feature I am a fan of on Bluesky.

It is the option to use your domain name as your handle. Honourable mentions to Arts University Bournemouth and the 英国约克大学 , both institutions have used this feature for their brand accounts.

Why is this worth doing?

CNET 's Gael Cooper writes:

For one thing, you can set your domain as your handle, if you wish. This could help with verification, which became a heated issue for Twitter...

"For example, a newsroom like NPR could set their handle to be @npr.org," the?Bluesky Social company blog notes. "Then, any journalists that NPR wants to verify could use subdomains to set their handles to be @name.npr.org. Brand accounts could set their handle to be their domain as well."

For higher education institutions, this presents a fantastic opportunity to give your audience clarity about accounts that are linked to your organisation. It's also a chance to develop a cohesive network of accounts, showcasing academic research and signposting services for staff, students, and alumni.

You can read Gael's full article below.

Opportunity 2: Showcasing and Signposting

There's a comforting familiarity to this next feature, and it's one I hope all universities who venture onto the platform take full advantage of, and that's starter packs.

I've linked to two of my own earlier in the article, where I am adding all UK universities on Bluesky, and another for HE specialist colleges and conservatoires. If your organisation isn't in the pack, drop me a message to be added.

You get the option to share starter packs via links or QR codes.

You can create 3 starter packs with up to 150 profiles in each one, so definitely spend some time thinking about how you want to use these on your main brand account.

You might even consider rotating the starter packs depending on what's happening at different points in the academic year, or aligning them to campaigns you are running.

Take it a step further and consider how the same thought process could cascade down to the department, faculty, research centre accounts you're recommending, and how they can best use starter packs for their audiences.

This is a useful feature to move away from a one size fits all approach to engaging audiences, and tap into fandoms or interest groups around some of the key research or activities taking place at your organisation.

Queen Mary University of London and 英国牛津大学 have already launched their first starter packs.

Bluesky Social's blog covers everything you need to get started with starter packs.

Opportunity 3: Moderation and Protection

Social media teams will be no stranger to the abuse that can come their way on any social media platform, although some are worse for it than others.

Higher education establishments have a duty of care to their social media teams, as quite often there will be a lack of awareness of what their employees can be faced with on a daily basis. Ranging from general messages complaining about a service, right the way through to coordinated attacks linked to academic research, with a few unwanted sexual images thrown into the mix too.

Bluesky have introduced a range of measures to help protect about the toxic side of social media, including:

• Detaching quote posts
• Hiding replies
• Creating block lists

They have some really positive features to ensure your organisation can protect staff members in the social media team. These can also be really useful if individual staff members are targeted for their research activities.

There's more on Bluesky's 'New Anti-Toxicity Features' blog post.

In Summary

At the very least, it is worth spending a few minutes to get onto the platform and claim your brand presence. I've already seen two universities with imposter accounts, so avoid losing your desired account handle and risking confusion for your audience.

It will be interesting to watch how to the platform develops over the coming weeks and months. You can delve into some of the usage stats thanks to Bluesky user Jaz, with this handy set of charts at https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats

And, if you're really stuck on where to start you can always drop me a message for one of my free virtual sessions to chat about your ideas for Bluesky.