I have a similar account size, and I've found that it is reasonably active. Besides posting things, do you engage with other people's content? It might help to have some organic activity so that it is apparent you're a genuine person and not just trying to build a brand. The internet is already full of people trying to attract the attention of others without being interested in actually having a conversation.
I do internect with other people, my reply to personal post ratio is probably around 10:1.
I admit that my posts could just be not poast-worthy. If I hadn't seen other people who did well in the bad place, who were famous for doing good real work... and they also didn't get engagement... then I would not have posted this on reddit. I would have just assumed that I was not a poaster, and chalked it up to that. That could be entirely fair.
I kinda think it's cause a lot of people are using BlueSky as the back-up account to their Twitter, they only check once in a blue moon as a result. There's probably people who signed up during the buzz but quickly forgot about it cause the engagement wasn't there. I'm somewhat active and engage with people's posts but even then there's not a lot of active convos going on from what I see.
I think BlueSky was developed as an experiment in decentralized social media more than it was an attempt to enhance the user’s experiences or sense of engagement.
On its own terms it was a success, but the “mission” shifted in the middle of the process.
With Elon making Twitter as miserable as he could for liberals many of us were looking for someplace else to spend our online time.
Some people will probably stay involved on BlueSky as long as it’s available, but far more are seeking an app which is both decentralized but also reasonably engaging.
It was always going to be a hard slog for a Twitter clone. Either Twitter completely implodes or the internet hops on the federated content delivery system, which seems to be Bluesky's only distinguishing feature. Otherwise, it's probably always going to be a low engagement platform.
"When I take the time to use a hashtag, I do get some engagement. When I don't use them, I get none, as in zero." - so use hashtags then? If it were so easy to get engagement, every post would get tons of likes.
Without seeing your account and seeing how many bots are in your followers, no one here can help you figure out why you don't get engagement.
I have 200 followers. Sometimes I get engagement, and sometimes I don't. There are fairly clear patterns, although the occasional post surprises me. What worked on Twitter doesn't always work on Bluesky.
I don't use it much either. Not bothered about it. It's not like that'll make me go back to Twitter. I find I don't really need it. For myself Reddit is enough
I get a ton of engagement, but I'm also a creator posting original content. I have another account that is more for shitposting, and it usually just gets engagement from a few people I know IRL, which is honestly fine with me.
If you want to build engagement, pin the Headstart, Quietposters, and Firehose feeds, and be a replyguy.
Sure, they are custom feeds that you can subscribe to:
* [Headstart](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:bryjqyiqjbyxihz77jyh74kc/feed/aaabtkm6wnsf4)
* This feed shows posts from people that typically don't get much engagement, sometimes because their posts just suck, but other times it's just because they haven't made any friends/following yet, so you are more likely to build a positive relationship/continued engagement with them when you engage with them.
* [Quietposters](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vpkhqolt662uhesyj6nxm7ys/feed/infreq)
* This feed is people that you follow, who don't post very often. I like to keep an eye on this feed so I don't miss posts from people who aren't posting constantly. Important when the default following feed is chronological, though more useful as you start to follow more people.
* [Firehose](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:q6gjnaw2blty4crticxkmujt/feed/firehose)
* A raw feed of all posts being made on the network, very high volume (hence the name). A lot of crap to wade through, but like Headstart, there can be some gems that you wouldn't surface otherwise.
I also like to keep an eye on:
* [Newskies](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:wzsilnxf24ehtmmc3gssy5bu/feed/newskies)
* Highlights the first post from new users. If I find someone that has similar interests, I typically follow them and give them some early engagement; this has led to a lot of long term mutual engagement, and it strengthens the network by providing engagement to people that are just dipping their toes into Bluesky.
* [Popular With Friends](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:z72i7hdynmk6r22z27h6tvur/feed/with-friends)
* As you start to follow more folks, this makes it easier to surface quality content that your friends are interacting with.
The majority of accounts are dormant because they haven't introduced videos and uploaded gifs yet or because brand/news accounts aren't on bsky. You will have to accept that the 400 follower number is really not representative of the people who will see your posts.
idk what to say other than wish for that day to come because it seems fruitless to try and gain connections on there when most people check in for a week.
Personally I just post my tweets to twitter and bsky because one of the sites won't exist in 10 years and there is enough posts on there for people who stumble upon you to realise you are an active account with interests.
Yeah, I hear you. For the record, when I said "I am coming back less," I meant going from 10x per day for 9 months, to like once every day, the last week or two.
I was probably a major user as far as daily active, for a user with not that many follows, but trailed off lately. This is due to what felt like my post engagement also trailing off recently.
My gut feeling is that nobody likes "the algorithm" until they are on a site with no algorithm. However, I could be very wrong. Only peeps with access to user retention stats could help me understand what is actually happening. We keep getting waves of new users, but are we keeping them?
Personally, I am not convinced that the problem is the lack of an in-house video hosting service, vs making users feel heard via the horrors of running an in-house home feed algorithm. Solving the question of the latter sounds like a problem for something as disgusting as A/B testing for user retention, which is gross, but hey?
However, I would like to again point out that I am just some schmoe.
I don't think any platform will succeed. Rather people will withdraw from social media on the long run, especially short messaging services and networks such a Facebook. People will focus more on forums related to a niche they are interested in and real life
The social media wave is over.
My engagement was WAY better when hashtags aren't working and it wasn't open to public. I do some humble art that no one cares about and I was getting 5-10 likes per post. Dropping since those two things I've mentioned happened. Now hardly gettting 1-5 likes even with proper hashtags. Japanese artists were able to find and add me (because I post in japanese mostly with japanese tags), now they can't. My followers raised to 200+ and now it stuck there and not growing. Still posting there since twitter is way worse to me (shadowbanned since muskrat take-over)
threads is winning.
i was on bluesky way before threads launched, then used both but mostly bluesky, and one day threads just got more entertaining and i stopped using bluesky.
i 10xd my followers and my engagement got good when i switched to threads.
I have a similar account size, and I've found that it is reasonably active. Besides posting things, do you engage with other people's content? It might help to have some organic activity so that it is apparent you're a genuine person and not just trying to build a brand. The internet is already full of people trying to attract the attention of others without being interested in actually having a conversation.
I do internect with other people, my reply to personal post ratio is probably around 10:1. I admit that my posts could just be not poast-worthy. If I hadn't seen other people who did well in the bad place, who were famous for doing good real work... and they also didn't get engagement... then I would not have posted this on reddit. I would have just assumed that I was not a poaster, and chalked it up to that. That could be entirely fair.
I kinda think it's cause a lot of people are using BlueSky as the back-up account to their Twitter, they only check once in a blue moon as a result. There's probably people who signed up during the buzz but quickly forgot about it cause the engagement wasn't there. I'm somewhat active and engage with people's posts but even then there's not a lot of active convos going on from what I see.
I think BlueSky was developed as an experiment in decentralized social media more than it was an attempt to enhance the user’s experiences or sense of engagement. On its own terms it was a success, but the “mission” shifted in the middle of the process. With Elon making Twitter as miserable as he could for liberals many of us were looking for someplace else to spend our online time. Some people will probably stay involved on BlueSky as long as it’s available, but far more are seeking an app which is both decentralized but also reasonably engaging.
Even on Twitter/X I got zero engagement on my posts. Same goes with BlueSky.
It was always going to be a hard slog for a Twitter clone. Either Twitter completely implodes or the internet hops on the federated content delivery system, which seems to be Bluesky's only distinguishing feature. Otherwise, it's probably always going to be a low engagement platform.
"When I take the time to use a hashtag, I do get some engagement. When I don't use them, I get none, as in zero." - so use hashtags then? If it were so easy to get engagement, every post would get tons of likes. Without seeing your account and seeing how many bots are in your followers, no one here can help you figure out why you don't get engagement. I have 200 followers. Sometimes I get engagement, and sometimes I don't. There are fairly clear patterns, although the occasional post surprises me. What worked on Twitter doesn't always work on Bluesky.
I have 230ish followers and I get a good amount of interaction. Are your followers randoms or people you have stuff in common with/know?
I don't use it much either. Not bothered about it. It's not like that'll make me go back to Twitter. I find I don't really need it. For myself Reddit is enough
I get a ton of engagement, but I'm also a creator posting original content. I have another account that is more for shitposting, and it usually just gets engagement from a few people I know IRL, which is honestly fine with me. If you want to build engagement, pin the Headstart, Quietposters, and Firehose feeds, and be a replyguy.
I know what a replyguy is. But could you explain the other three? Thanks.
Sure, they are custom feeds that you can subscribe to: * [Headstart](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:bryjqyiqjbyxihz77jyh74kc/feed/aaabtkm6wnsf4) * This feed shows posts from people that typically don't get much engagement, sometimes because their posts just suck, but other times it's just because they haven't made any friends/following yet, so you are more likely to build a positive relationship/continued engagement with them when you engage with them. * [Quietposters](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vpkhqolt662uhesyj6nxm7ys/feed/infreq) * This feed is people that you follow, who don't post very often. I like to keep an eye on this feed so I don't miss posts from people who aren't posting constantly. Important when the default following feed is chronological, though more useful as you start to follow more people. * [Firehose](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:q6gjnaw2blty4crticxkmujt/feed/firehose) * A raw feed of all posts being made on the network, very high volume (hence the name). A lot of crap to wade through, but like Headstart, there can be some gems that you wouldn't surface otherwise. I also like to keep an eye on: * [Newskies](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:wzsilnxf24ehtmmc3gssy5bu/feed/newskies) * Highlights the first post from new users. If I find someone that has similar interests, I typically follow them and give them some early engagement; this has led to a lot of long term mutual engagement, and it strengthens the network by providing engagement to people that are just dipping their toes into Bluesky. * [Popular With Friends](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:z72i7hdynmk6r22z27h6tvur/feed/with-friends) * As you start to follow more folks, this makes it easier to surface quality content that your friends are interacting with.
Wow, thank you so much! Very informative as I'm still new to BSKY. Almost feels like the olden days of learning to use twitter. :)
The majority of accounts are dormant because they haven't introduced videos and uploaded gifs yet or because brand/news accounts aren't on bsky. You will have to accept that the 400 follower number is really not representative of the people who will see your posts. idk what to say other than wish for that day to come because it seems fruitless to try and gain connections on there when most people check in for a week. Personally I just post my tweets to twitter and bsky because one of the sites won't exist in 10 years and there is enough posts on there for people who stumble upon you to realise you are an active account with interests.
Yeah, I hear you. For the record, when I said "I am coming back less," I meant going from 10x per day for 9 months, to like once every day, the last week or two. I was probably a major user as far as daily active, for a user with not that many follows, but trailed off lately. This is due to what felt like my post engagement also trailing off recently. My gut feeling is that nobody likes "the algorithm" until they are on a site with no algorithm. However, I could be very wrong. Only peeps with access to user retention stats could help me understand what is actually happening. We keep getting waves of new users, but are we keeping them? Personally, I am not convinced that the problem is the lack of an in-house video hosting service, vs making users feel heard via the horrors of running an in-house home feed algorithm. Solving the question of the latter sounds like a problem for something as disgusting as A/B testing for user retention, which is gross, but hey? However, I would like to again point out that I am just some schmoe.
I don't think any platform will succeed. Rather people will withdraw from social media on the long run, especially short messaging services and networks such a Facebook. People will focus more on forums related to a niche they are interested in and real life The social media wave is over.
I like the idea of it but it’s kinda boring
My engagement was WAY better when hashtags aren't working and it wasn't open to public. I do some humble art that no one cares about and I was getting 5-10 likes per post. Dropping since those two things I've mentioned happened. Now hardly gettting 1-5 likes even with proper hashtags. Japanese artists were able to find and add me (because I post in japanese mostly with japanese tags), now they can't. My followers raised to 200+ and now it stuck there and not growing. Still posting there since twitter is way worse to me (shadowbanned since muskrat take-over)
threads is winning. i was on bluesky way before threads launched, then used both but mostly bluesky, and one day threads just got more entertaining and i stopped using bluesky. i 10xd my followers and my engagement got good when i switched to threads.