I Compared How the Same Post Performs on Different Social Media Platforms

The rapid growth of Bluesky: week 25

Today, I published two posts on four social media platforms to understand better where to post what kind of content. They were average posts, not meant to break engagement records.

One post was visually attractive: a photo of the town of Zierikzee. I added no information besides the short line "Reflections of the beautiful town of Zierikzee." I also added the hashtag #photography.

A few hours later, I published a second post that was quite different. This one didn't have an eye-catching photo but only a single line of text related to the news, which gave an opinion and which various groups of readers could interpret differently.

I published them on X, Bluesky, Threads, and as notes on Substack.

These are the posts on Twitter:

My following on X, Bluesky, Threads, and Substack

Most of my followers are on X, still from the good old days of Twitter: 279k (and a total of 411k if you add my second account, which I didn't use today).

My following on Bluesky grew from 800 on election day, November 5, to more than 6k today. That's impressive growth, more than sixfold. However, it still represents less than 2.5% of my following on X.

My followers in Threads are stable at about 1,800. That number has not grown since the elections.

I have more than 5k subscribers and followers on Substack. There is some growth, but not the spectacular numbers of Bluesky.

What worked and what didn't work?

As you would expect, the platform where I have the most followers, X, gave the photo of Zierikzee the most likes: 59. But the surprise is the number of likes that photo received on Bluesky with just 2,5 percent of the following I have on X: 36 likes.

Let's stay with these two competitors and look at the second tweet. It's even closer: 21 likes on X and 19 on Bluesky. I hardly need to explain that since Elon Musk took over Twitter and morphed it into an entirely different platform, he heavily tweaked the algorithm to promote toxic MAGA content. I realize now that I should have chosen another tweet for today's testing; there is the risk that the algorithm might have identified this tweet as supporting those 'refreshing Republicans' who defend the rule of law. Worse, there is the risk that Trump supporters like the tweet as much as the non-MAGA crowd since everyone can read this line the way they like it.

However, it isn't a problem in this short analysis because such confusion should have worked to X's advantage. Still, that small group of 2.5 percent Bluesky followers gave it practically as many likes.

On Threads, I have about a third of my Bluesky followers (1.8k vs. 6k). Considering that, the 13 likes on Threads for the photo of Zierikzee are about equal to the 36 on Bluesky.

However, the political post received few likes on Threads. It illustrates the Threads algorithm, which significantly limits the promotion of political content. Meta has stated it will not proactively recommend political posts from accounts users do not follow, focusing instead on visually engaging content. I also noted that recently, when posting a video of an octopus, it received 1,700 likes; it was the closest experience to "going viral" I ever had on this platform.

You can still see political content on Threads if you follow relevant accounts, but you must opt-in to receive recommendations for such content.

Most readers of The Planet newsletter will likely part with X. I know some of you deleted your accounts. Others, like me, are still functioning in our corner of X while building up a presence elsewhere. I will focus mainly on BlueSky; it has the feel of Twitter before Musk ruined it, and it's fun to find old Twitter friends back on the other side.

Bluesky caters more to journalists and political discussions; right-wing trolls are rare and easy to block. Unlike most social media platforms, Bluesky has no central algorithm. It means that what you read on your screen is solely based on real engagement; posts that are liked and shared by many gain visibility. 

I also posted on Notes, which is best described as Substack's Twitter-like space but meant for the Substack community. This means that it attracts readers of texts instead of one-liners. The content shared differs significantly from X and even from traditional Twitter. It is much closer linked to the newsletters and the writers on Substack. That is not a rule, and there are many exceptions, but spending time on notes feels like sharing with friends in a closed community. My Zierikzee photo received 19 likes. Comparing the number of followers and likes (and the delay in posting it) with Bluesky means that the 'success rate' of the post is about 70 percent of Bluesky's results.

Substack continuously changes its algorithm for Notes. Posting my latest newsletter on Notes works better without any accompanying text, but nobody gets many likes by promoting their newsletter. What works better is several short lines, using open space (so it looks a bit like a poem), and adding a photo. Try sharing insights, tips, or personal storytelling.

The most extreme outlier is not the success on Bluesky but the lack of success at X for such a neutral post as a picture of a town. Having a different political view than Elon Musk and promoting my Substack newsletter has likely led the X-algorithm to conclude that X should hide anything I post from the larger audience. But now that my reach has grown on the other platforms, I don't worry about that too much anymore. I wonder what will happen around the January 20 inauguration date; many more may leave X for Bluesky.

Week 25

In our review of 2024 (I hadn't forgotten about it, but I wanted to share these insights first), we have arrived at Week 25: June 17-23.

It was at the week that Bluesky announced the start of "starter packs." These are collections of recommended users so you can quickly follow accounts that match your interests.

In the chat, we share our memories of each week; you're welcome to join if you're visiting for the first time. Looking at my photo memories of that week, I see that it was the week I made a long walk along the coastline of one of the islands of Zeeland.

The church and the view of the beach are from that day. I also passed a herd of cows close to my home daily. During the hot summer, they discovered a shallow lake that cooled them down. You can see them standing in the water at midday. Of course, there is Luna. She inspected one of the many boxes I used to move into another house.

What are your memories of June 17-23, 2024? And on which social media platforms are you active? That and more is for the chat, where I would also be interested to hear if you like reading more about social media in this newsletter.