Bluesky social listening: Tips for sourcing audience insights

Social media is always evolving, giving brands fresh ways to connect with their audiences. 

One of the most exciting platforms to watch right now is Bluesky. With its decentralized model and growing user base, Bluesky is emerging as a busy hub for social commentary and consumer insights.

With Talkwalker’s new Bluesky integration, tapping into the conversations happening on the platform is easier than ever. Keep reading to find out how to extend your social listening strategy to Bluesky — and how your business can benefit from it.

What is Bluesky?

Bluesky is a decentralized, text-based social media app originally incubated at Twitter, and now an independent public benefit corporation led by Jay Graber. 

Bluesky looks a lot like Twitter, but it operates in a very different way. The platform’s open-source structure prioritizes transparency and customization, allowing users to create personalized feeds and interact with the network on their own terms.

Initially launched as an invite-only platform, Bluesky opened to the public in early 2024, gaining over 30M users in one year. 

Curious how Bluesky compares to its text-based alternatives? This simple rundown will help:

Source: Hootsuite

Who is using Bluesky?

With over 32 million users as of January 2025, Bluesky is in hypergrowth. Currently, the platform’s largest user base is in the United States, followed by Japan, the UK, and Brazil. 

Bluesky’s user base includes:

• Journalists and publications. Many have embraced Bluesky for its easy verification process and the fact that its algorithm doesn’t demote links to external sources (which is the case on many other social platforms).
• Researchers and academics: Bluesky is gaining traction in academic circles, with more than 22% of researchers reportedly choosing it over other social networks.
• Sports, pop culture, and entertainment: After Bluesky added video, the sports and pop culture communities grew quickly as well.
• Niche communities: Bluesky’s custom feeds attract highly engaged users seeking meaningful conversations across a broad range of topics.

While its overall size is smaller than competitors like Threads or Mastodon, Bluesky’s user engagement levels are higher, offering a more authentic and intimate experience for both personal and professional connections.

Why your business should join Bluesky

Bluesky offers distinct advantages for brands looking to diversify their social media strategies and engage with tech-savvy, niche audiences. 

If you don’t already have a Bluesky account, here are a few reasons to consider setting one up:

1. Algorithmic choice

Bluesky empowers users and brands by allowing you to choose your own timeline. Unlike traditional social networks that serve a single black-box algorithm, on Bluesky, you control your scroll.

2. Custom domains for a trustworthy brand presence

Bluesky allows brands to create custom domains for their handles, offering a unique way to establish a recognizable presence on the platform. Instead of relying on generic usernames (e.g., @brand.bsky.social), brands can set up handles using their own domain names (e.g., @brand.com).

This can enhance credibility by directly linking a brand’s social identity to its official web presence. It also reduces the risk of impersonation, a common issue on traditional social platforms.

3. Flexibility with content moderation

On most major social media platforms, content moderation is controlled by platform-wide policies and automated algorithms. Bluesky’s decentralized structure allows for a more tailored approach. 

Brands can use customizable moderation settings to ensure their messages are presented in contexts that align with their values and communication strategies. Special filters can be used to block certain types of interactions, reducing the risk of association with off-brand discussions and providing a safer space for engagement.

This is particularly useful for businesses operating in regulated industries or brands that frequently deal with misinformation, spam, or off-topic discussions. Plus, it improves the user experience. Win-win!

4. Data portability

Bluesky’s data portability feature ensures that brands maintain ownership of their content and audience relationships, reducing their dependence on the platform. 

But what does portability mean in practice?

Unlike traditional social networks, where user-generated content is stored and controlled by the platform, Bluesky’s AT Protocol allows users to move datasets, including profiles, posts, and follower relationships, between different services within the ecosystem. This means brands aren’t locked into a single platform’s rules or business decisions — if Bluesky changes its policies, shuts down, or no longer aligns with a brand’s needs, the data remains transferable to another compatible service.

This is particularly valuable in a landscape where social network ownership and policy changes can disrupt brands’ content reach, audience visibility, and engagement strategies. Recent examples include platform rebrands, algorithm overhauls, and shifting moderation policies on networks like X and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram.

5. An authentically engaging environment

Bluesky encourages authentic engagement by promoting a space where brands can share content without the pressure to be overly promotional. This environment fosters genuine interactions and creative expression and ensures that conversations flow naturally, allowing brands to engage with audiences in a less curated, more genuine way.

Bluesky does not demote or throttle links, so users including publishers are seeing a 2-10x increase in engagement and traffic to their websites. On Bluesky, you can own your distribution and reach your audiences easily.

How to Use Bluesky for social listening

As it gains more and more new users, Bluesky is quickly becoming a valuable platform for social listening. The platform offers brands a fresh way to track brand awareness, audience sentiment, competitive insights, and industry trends in a decentralized, transparent environment.

The good news? Talkwalker now integrates with Bluesky as a data source, empowering brands to stay ahead of trends with insights from Bluesky’s growing 30M+ user base.

With Talkwalker, brands can comprehensively track:

• Public conversation insights: posts and audience replies
• Key engagement metrics: likes, shares, and quotes

These powerful Bluesky analytics capabilities empower businesses with actionable insights to better understand emerging trends, identify brand sentiment, and foster authentic engagement.

"Bluesky has over 32 million accounts, with over 1 million daily posters and more than 1 billion posts created since its launch. We want Bluesky to be a place where users can both find the latest news and stay in touch with their friends, and we’re excited to partner with Hootsuite to make it easier to tap into the Bluesky network" - Emily Liu, Bluesky Head of Special Projects

Get started by booking your pressure-free Talkwalker demo today.

5 practical tips for social listening on Bluesky

1. Start with goals

For brands looking to leverage Bluesky for social listening, the first step is setting clear objectives. Are you tracking brand sentiment? Monitoring competitor activity? Identifying industry trends? Gathering direct customer feedback? 

Defining priorities will help focus efforts, establish benchmarks, and measure success effectively.

2. Monitor brand mentions

Even if you have nuanced goals for your listening strategy, monitoring brand mentions across posts, reposts, and replies is a great starting point. With an understanding of where and how your brand name shows up in the platform, you can measure sentiment and join the right conversations in real-time.

3. Keep an eye on competitors

Competitive monitoring is equally important. With a social listening or analytics tool, you can observe how competitors engage with their audiences and respond to industry trends. Use this information to refine your own content strategies and improve audience engagement.

4. Be active

Social listening should not be a passive activity. Brands that actively participate in conversations, provide meaningful responses, and contribute valuable insights build stronger relationships with their audiences.

5. Give it time

Tracking sentiment trends over a longer period of time will help you build a deep and nuanced how your messaging is being received. By analyzing recurring themes and common concerns, you can identify opportunities to refine your business and marketing strategies. 

Explore the possibilities with Bluesky and unlock new opportunities for authentic brand engagement with Talkwalker.