X, Threads and Bluesky – Which should your business use?

If you were a business that found X to be a useful channel, you most likely played into the platform’s core strengths, sharing sector-specific news or acting as an additional customer service stream. But in recent years, you may have seen a bit of a drop off in engagements and reach due to various numbers of changes that happened even before Musk took over. Right now, X in my opinion, is a difficult channel for many brands to use as part of their social media marketing strategy, and the two alternatives, Bluesky and Threads are still early in their development to be used as backups. So what do you do?

While the easiest advice would be to focus on bigger channels like TikTok, LinkedIn and Instagram, we understand that not every business is suited for those platforms – even if they are slowly all becoming identical to one another. If you like the format of text-based posts and rapid-fire updates, you may want to start looking at the Twitter alternatives so you’re prepared for when they improve and come into their own. To help you decide which is best for your brand, we have broken down the pros and cons of both below.

Pros and Cons of Threads

In 2023, Instagram launched its Twitter clone to rival Musk, known as Threads. As someone who experienced day one of Threads, it seemed it was set to be the next biggest thing and bring on the resurgence of status-formed social media… but after day one things went very quiet. 

While the app does now have 275 active million users, there are still plenty of complaints about its features – mainly around the feed and how it doesn’t prioritise posts from those you follow (something Instagram has also struggled with for over a year now). This means if you were to transition to Threads and build a following, your posts may still struggle to gain traction because of the feed algorithm.

A pro for the channel is its connection with Instagram. If you have an Instagram account with a big following, transitioning to Threads will probably be a smart decision as the app allows you to instantly follow those from Instagram, which means when your followers create a Threads account, they can automatically follow you.

From a paid social perspective, Threads is part of the Meta family, which means those who run ads across Facebook and Instagram will soon be able to add Threads to the mix as well with ads set to be live on the platform in early 2025. This could mean new business advantages in terms of reach and clicks but time will tell whether its already comparatively small user base actually grows tired of ads placements and perhaps uses the channel less.

In addition,Threads does allow for analytics and reporting, helping you understand follower growth, views and interactions. Since it is Meta owned, it should also easily slot into the social strategy for many businesses alongside the regular channels you are used to managing.

Is Bluesky a Good Channel for Business?

As of December 2024, Bluesky currently has 24 million active users and has grown at an incredible rate after the election. Since Bluesky was originally an experiment created by a former employee of Twitter, it comes as no surprise that the app looks almost identical to the previous platform, which may make it an easy choice for your transition.

That being said, CEO Jay Graber has promised that the platform will not be filled with ads. This is a win for users but could be a big red flag for some brands that used Twitter to drive sales. Although this promise may not be kept during the growth period of the channel.

Unlike Threads and X, Bluesky has been praised for its feed algorithm which allows a higher level of customisation for users. This should mean your content will actually be seen by those following you.

The biggest downside to Bluesky at the moment however, is that it does not have analytics built into the app, which means for now you won’t be able to report on your performance within the app. A/B testing posts or learning what works for your audience will require manual effort. Businesses that are using social to drive leads and conversions will need to look at website analytics to measure traffic and consider using tracking parameters on links for more precise measurement. 

Weighing the Options Post-X

For now, transitioning to either alternative will come at some form of cost – for Threads it means your content has the high chance of not being seen by your followers, and for Bluesky it means no native reporting or paid ads opportunities. 

However, both of these channels appear to have a solid development plan set for the future and are rapidly growing. Since these channels are still somewhat in their infancy, they present ample opportunity to sign up and gain social dominance.

Whether or not they can be seen as rewarding channels as part of your paid social media plan remains to be seen. Threads will soon have ads functionality but for now gaining worthwhile organic reach and engagement could be slow. And where Bluesky has potential to be a user-friendly, social, organic platform and capture the essence of what Twitter once was, who knows how long it will take for it to become a fully-functional marketing channel. For now, it probably makes best business sense to focus on your primary channels, whether that’s LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, and simply explore these “X alternative” channels as secondary for experimental and low-frequency posting.

If you’d like any advice for your social media marketing strategy, I’m happy to talk. Take a look at our social media services page or reach out.