If you're leaving Twitter

BlueSky, Mastodon and Threads are popular destinations

Hi, reporters! A couple years ago, I recommended switching to LinkedIn if you were thinking about leaving Twitter. I still stand by that, and think LinkedIn is a great option (possibly the best) if you want to share your work and find others.

But- that said. I have heard, as many of you probably have, about the huge influx of users to BlueSky. So I decided to share what seem to be the three biggest contenders for Twitter exodees right now:

BlueSky (shortened to bsky) is an open-source imitation of Twitter, originally created by one of the founders of Twitter itself. BlueSky has the upside of looking almost exactly like the original, but with fewer distractions in the sidebars (at least for now).

Threads is the Meta version, by the company behind Facebook. Unfortunately, you can’t use Threads without an honest to god Instagram account, which does not seem like a good idea to me in general. A lot of people don’t want to connect their professional personas to their IG account. A lot of newsrooms don’t even have one.

Mastodon is for the folks who are techier, or just edgier than the rest of us. Mastodon works via something called “federation” (not like a group of countries) that connects content between various servers. You can set up an account on Mastodon’s own server or apply to join someone else’s, which might be confusing.

So - where should you go? Personally, I would sit on accounts on all three, plus LinkedIn as well. Then see which one you prefer, or where the wind blows.

Also - I mentioned earlier that I have a big announcement for TFR, and I am still excited about that! Things have been shifting the last few weeks, as you can imagine, so at this point I will push that to a separate email. Stay on top of your feed, reporters!

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