How NSFW Creators Can Take Bluesky to the Next Level

by Dirk Hooper for Sexy Networking

How many large general audience social media platforms exist that allow users to post adult content?

I can count three that have survived:

1. X/Formally Twitter
2. Reddit
3. Tumblr

All other platforms either explicitly don’t allow adult content, say that they allow some adult content but really don’t, are small, or are small and are geared to only adult content.

I’m not throwing stones at any of those other platforms, but right now if you’re a sex worker or an adult content creator, you want to post adult content, and you want to reach as many people as possible, you have X, Reddit, and Tumblr. I don’t have to go into the issues with each one of those platforms (or the many platforms that don’t allow NSFW content), but they each have their positives and negatives.

My advice to clients for Sexy Networking is to have a home base (your own website) and to have outposts (social media accounts) everywhere.

What’s exciting to me is that there’s a new potentially big social media platform that has gained enough traction in the last few weeks that it could… could, grow to the point where it’s both big enough to reach a large audience, and allow adult content.

That platform is Bluesky and it has a lot of potential for sex workers and adult content creators.

Bluesky

I joined Bluesky nearly a year ago, posted a few times, and even made a push to see if I could get any traction.

At the time it was like most smaller platforms, where posting is like screaming into the wind. It’s a waste of time, and it makes your throat sore.

But since the Presidential election in the United States many people fled X and found Bluesky. Bluesky is currently clocking in at 3.5 million daily active users, which is up 300% from just a few weeks ago. That puts Bluesky’s engagement in the ballpark of Threads, which boasts over 100 million users, compared to Bluesky’s over 20 million users. (And Threads truly sucks balls… in a bad way.)

X reports that their daily active users number 250 million, and Meta’s daily active users are 3 billion (!!!), so Bluesky is still small potatoes… but growing.

Bluesky has several features that make it more than just an X clone.

1. The way that you can craft multiple feeds around friends or interests make it the most useful social media site since Google+.
2. Through Lists and Starter Packs it’s easy to build and follow dozens of users quickly.
3. They allow you to put your own labels on adult content so that individual users can choose the level of adult content they are comfortable with or interested in. EVERY SOCIAL MEDIA SITE SHOULD DO THIS! It’s 2024, time for all other platforms to implement this so adults can start talking frankly to other adults again. If you don’t want frank adult discourse, just set your filters accordingly.
4. I don’t have any evidence besides my own personal experience, but it seems like Bluesky hasn’t been around long enough to gum up everything with algorithms that destroy your ability to be seen and to see other people organically. I shouldn’t have to tell you what heavy algorithmic feeds will do to your engagement. It’s likely that you’ve been throttled everywhere for the past 4 to 8 years on X, Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, and all the rest. I have no idea if Bluesky will have heavy-handed algorithms in the future, but right now, it’s refreshing to be on a platform where my posts are being seen organically.

How Can We Support Bluesky?

There are no guarantees in the future. Who knows what Bluesky will become, or if it will be bought out, ruined by the owners, or collapse under its own weight. If there’s anything that I’ve learned over the past quarter century of being on social media, all you have is today.

As I write this, 3.5 million active users sound like a lot, but that’s still a tiny portion of the social media landscape. And, as we enter the holiday season, I can already see engagement and follows slowing down. Bluesky has a long way to go before it’s a major player.

But, right now, Bluesky is playing nice with sex workers and adult content creators, and growth is promising. Plus, there are some features that make it ideal for building long term. Wouldn’t it be nice to have another option to post NSFW content? It certainly wouldn’t hurt to plant some seeds and see if they grow into something wonderful.

What I’m offering below are a few strategies for NSFW users to help support and grow Bluesky, or any other nascent platform, that allows us to speak openly and boldly.

As Picard Says… ENGAGE!

Bluesky has over 20 million users, but only 3.5 million daily users. That means that engagement on the platform is from about 1/7^th of those who have signed up. If you’re one of those 3.5 million people, then it’s up to you to keep:

1. Posting consistently,
2. Posting quality content,
3. Participating in discussions.

Why is that important? Ha! Just go over to Threads and see what’s happening over there! All you’ll see are tumbleweeds, and sand, and sadness. There’s nothing going on over there! It’s a ghost town! Threads has four times the user base and no activity. Sure, big time influencers are getting attention, but they are sucking up the air from everyone else. Meta is notorious for feeding you to big accounts and letting everyone else suffer.

Bluesky is (currently) letting everyone in on the party. That’s a great opportunity for you to grow your own following, AND to help build excitement to keep growth going.

Invite Others to the Party

Some ideas on how to help grow the platform include:

1. Posting your Bluesky address on other platforms and inviting followers to join you,
2. Making personal invitations to your friends and biggest supporters through email, DMs, or texts,
3. Create content that’s exclusive to Bluesky and linking to it elsewhere.

Be a Good Member of the Community

If a platform becomes a hellhole then it won’t be around long. Bots can only catch so much, and honestly, the biggest knock that I have on Bluesky right now is that they have exceptionally aggressive bots that label your content for you. The saving grace (at this time) is that Bluesky’s bots are not leading to harassment, throttling, shadowbans, or suspensions. That could change any day though.

Until then, policing our own adult community and reporting the bad guys could help hold off all the negative stuff I mentioned above. It might not work forever, but it can help.

Also, suggesting improvements to the development team could make a positive difference. We deal with things that no one else does, and it seems like Bluesky developers are in receptive mode right now. Any platform that’s trying to improve will listen to its user base.

If Bluesky puts out surveys, polls, or posts asking for input, give them honest responses.

Other Thoughts

Who knows what’s going to happen with Bluesky? It has a lot of promise, but bigger platforms have failed spectacularly in the past.

Also, you should always be on your guard if you’re a sex worker or an adult content creator. Social media platforms have turned on us routinely and without warning. Typically, they use us to grow their base, and then when they get big enough to court ads from pharmaceutical companies and banks, they treat us like shit. That’s why I advise being in more than one place.

However, there’s a chance that Bluesky will figure out how to grow, and respect us and our contributions, and we’ll help create a community that allows us to thrive.

There’s no harm in thinking positively and hoping for the best.

And if Bluesky doesn’t work out, there will be other platforms in the future, and these methods will work there too. After all, people want what we’re offering, so there will always be an audience hungry for our content, and platforms courting us and the attention we bring.