Louise Palmer, joint MD at PR firm Wildfire: "At the moment, most of our clients aren't yet interested in promoting their brands on Bluesky as the audience is still too small — particularly for niche B2B tech products. That said, as an agency, we're monitoring the community closely for influence. A lot of tech journalists are experimenting with Bluesky right now, or have recently moved over as part of the great X-odus since the US election. It's providing a new way to interact with and monitor trending issues for tech journalists."

Rhea Freeman, consultant and founder at PR firm Rhea Freeman PR: “Bluesky has been in the news a lot, and although it’s definitely interesting, I don’t think it has the clout of X, particularly from a PR point of view, simply because the numbers aren’t there yet. Now yes, you could argue that due to there being less people there, it’s easier for your voice to be heard, and when a platform takes off, early adopters do get a big advantage, but with around 17 million vs somewhere between 160 and 250 million on X, the numbers aren’t there yet.

“I think Bluesky will continue to gain traction, but when we look at Meta’s Threads and how many users it has, I would think it’s more likely that Threads will continue to develop and become a more serious competitor to X. That said, smaller, engaged platforms with the right people on them can do huge things. It’s not all about the numbers, it’s about the people behind those numbers and making sure they’re the right ones.”

Lee Sanders, associate director at PR firm Frank: "Social and digital trends, unfortunately aren't made by disgruntled agency folk and brands moving platforms, they have and always will be led by where the younger generations are, remember when TikTok was a platform for kids to do dances? Yeah, me too.

“Time will tell if Bluesky will reign supreme, but it's not the first time I've heard that Bluesky will kill off X, which it is yet to successfully do. I'm not jumping ship just yet. I feel like the bandwagon leaving to make a statement is a bit cringe. If X is a party, then just pull an Irish goodbye, nobody cares that you're leaving, if anything, the whole peacocking situation makes me not want to join Bluesky even more, imagine being trapped in a (digital) room with all those people, yikes. Plus, the Irish Goodbye works better because if you want to you can always sneak back in.

“Finally for the value of PR, X actually gives a decent-ish reliance on the general vibe around things, what people hate, what people are loving. Most importantly, real-time trends and news start on X. Of course it’s not a mass representation of the audience, but as of right now Bluesky doesn't offer that.”

Stuart Bruce, PR futurist and co-founder of advisory firm Purposeful Relations:“I joined Bluesky in May 2023 when it only had about 80k users and was invitation only. I was impressed by its potential, but disappointed because there weren’t enough people to make it interesting or useful. Even when Bluesky became open to all it didn’t lead to a big influx of new people.

“Fast forward to summer 2024 when Elon Musk made his ill-informed comments on the UK riots. It triggered a sudden influx of new users and Bluesky is rapidly becoming the new Twitter.

“At the moment many of the accounts I’m following and interacting with are using both X and Bluesky. Not many have abandoned X entirely as it still has critical mass. But there are now enough people on Bluesky to make it worth double posting and interacting on both. Bluesky isn’t a place you need to be for consumer or brand marketing. But it is a place you now need to be if you want to interact with real world influencers and decision makers such as journalists, politicians, academics and professionals in lots of sectors (including PR and corporate affairs).”

Georgina Procter, PR and communications consultant: “It seems X’s downfall in recent years has been the misuse of the platform following Elon Musk’s takeover, and his affiliation with Trump. However, X still has a massive influence and if you can reach your target audience on the platform I wouldn’t suggest jumping ship, yet.

“As Bluesky evolves, and so does Musk’s involvement with Trump over the next four years of power, allegiances could easily change (and seems like they already are), with reputation always being the crux of popular opinion. Aside from political views, a key attraction to Bluesky is creating custom feeds and being able to tap into algorithms that focus on what you actually want to see. X has become notorious for having a lot of inappropriate and irrelevant content you have to trawl through before finding what you want. This Bluesky feature could be influential from a public image standpoint; if your messaging is concise, the algorithm could help you access your target audience ASAP. Yes, it's another social platform, but it's not one to be ignored.”

Ben Rogers, account director at PR firm Antidote Communications: “For people like me, who still long for the days when the most stressful decision was who made it into your MySpace Top 8, nostalgia is a powerful drug. BlueSky has it in spades, with a look and feel of pre-Musk Twitter that long-time users of the platform are embracing in their millions. It doesn’t feel like the flash in the pan other platforms have proven to be.

“Journalists are also voting with their feet, with many opting to leave X and move to BlueSky instead, adding gravitas to a platform that already has momentum on its side. As more make the move, industry professionals will increasingly need to view the platform as a PR tool. #JournoRequest will no doubt grow on BlueSky, acting as a live stream of media opportunities, as well as a way to strengthen personal relationships with industry contacts. It won’t be long before I take the leap of faith and set up my account, and I’m confident a lot of the industry will be doing the same.”

Jack Storry, head of corporate at PR firm Boldspace: “We are now at a tipping point where Bluesky’s influence is starting to significantly grow. In the past fortnight there has been a surge in journalists, policymakers and organisations who have joined the platform. Many conversations that once took place on X, are now happening on Bluesky.

“Our advice to clients is that they should now be seriously thinking about how Bluesky might form part of their social media strategy. It is very possible that in the coming months we will see the influence of Bluesky grow further, and potentially even surpass X in some regards."