Having Questions About Bluesky? We are too!

By Karen Gehrman | Associate Director of Communications, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center

BlueSky IconWhile many have been considering leaving the Twitter/X platform in the past year, Bluesky has emerged this month as a possible replacement. So, what’s the deal?

This blog will probably be outdated by the time you read this, but here’s some opening info to help answer that question. Sources are cited below.

What is Bluesky? 

Bluesky is being seen as a possible replacement for Twitter/X which many in the scientific and medical community are moving away from, citing changes to the platform’s Terms of Services around intellectual property and generative AI, and dissatisfaction with the channel moderation and tone. Science called Bluesky a response to “pent-up demand among scientists for what is essentially the old Twitter.”

But what is Bluesky, really?

This week, ABCNews offered this summary:“Bluesky is a text-oriented social media platform on which users can post messages as long as 300 characters. Like X, the messages posted on Bluesky appear on a newsfeed displayed to users. The app is available on iOS and Android.

The platform operates on an open framework, meaning that users can post their messages to a server tailored for specific interests or communities. The system design resembles that which is used on another text-first app, Mastodon, as well as the decentralized platform Discord.”

Who is on Bluesky already?

As of today, some of my key UCSF cancer people are on it, and so are yours.  Some PAMN-member centers are on it, including  Fred Hutch, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Illinois Cancer Center, MD Anderson, Winship Cancer Institute, UCSF, Lurie Cancer Center, UK Markey Cancer Center.

Since Bluesky does lists like Twitter/X, click here for a growing list of Cancer Centers Iʻve created.

Need more info? This week, articles have appeared in Nature (‘A place of joy’: why scientists are joining the rush to Bluesky) and MedPageToday (Physicians Flock to Bluesky, Hoping to Leave X Behind) to explain why physicians and scientists have been compelled to move to Bluesky.

Should we create a center account or wait and see what happens? 

Maybe. While some cancer centers have taken the plunge, others say they are being more cautious, waiting for analytics and other signs of platform maturity.

Drawbacks as of this moment include:

  1. No metrics … YET.
  2. No social scheduling (via Sprout Social, Hootsuite) … YET.
  3. No social share icons for website … YET.
  4. A new account = more work.

To concerns about metrics, social scheduling, and share icons –  with 12 new users a second (a million a day since the election) and only 24 current employees, Iʻd say it is just a matter of time. Bluesky is expanding fast.  If they want to truly compete, they’ll have to add these features. It might be worth waiting for that to happen, and it might be worth diving in.

Will this create more work for me?

Yes/and? If you are ditching Twitter/X, the heavy lift will be on (re)building the same kind of presence. The internet to the rescue… already resources like DIY GitHub instructions and Chrome Extensions exist to help import some of your Twitter/X data to your Bluesky account, including suggesting handles of current followers. Mileage may vary… TBD!

If you create an account, you can also either sit on it and like/follow for a while (remember that from the early days of social?) or you can cut and paste content from Twitter/X to Bluesky or vice versa for now. Is it worth it for you? Your call.

Is Bluesky here to stay?

Yes/maybe? In the past week, many accounts have been set up but are quietly amassing followers without posting. The Catch-22 with social platforms: the more people join, the more the switch will be justifiable, and if you justify it, the more people will join.

As cancer communicators, my opinion (living in the belly of the Twitter/X beast and having more reason than most to have abandoned the platform already) is I’m jazzed to have a possible viable and centralized (non-Threads, non-Mastodon) replacement, so I say let’s go for it.

CNET Summary of Started on BlueSky
Tips from CNET

How do I get started?

See primers from PCMag, Popular Science, and CNET,< (figure to the right) offer basic tips on starting, accelerating, and maximizing a personal or organizational Bluesky account.

Quick tip: If you create an account, follow the other Cancer Centers and “like” one of their posts to give the algorithm an idea of the content you want.

If you take the plunge:

  1. Check out the growing list of PAMN-centers here and follow them.
  2. If you have success with importing your data via GitHub, Chrome Extensions or other solutions, please comment below to share your experience!
  3. Please follow UCSF at @ucsfcancer.bsky.social.
  4. And… please follow me at @beaucarrot.bsky.social.

 

Hope to see you up there soon!

 

Sources Cited:

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