Key takeaways
- Hootsuite now supports Bluesky publishing and scheduling. (Bluesky does not have a native scheduling tool.)
- Scheduling posts is essential for social media managers who are expected to post between 48 and 72 times per week across all major social networks.
- Don’t forget to pause scheduled posts when context shifts, add tracking parameters to measure impact and optimize timing across time zones.
It’s no secret that social media managers and teams have a lot on their plates. (Especially “teams” that are made up of just one person.) In-depth research from Hootsuite and Critical Truth found that brands should aim to post 48 to 72 times per week across platforms.
And that was before Bluesky was added to the list of places brands need to have an online presence.
Constantly switching between social media apps wastes precious time and can disrupt your memory, focus, and decision-making abilities.
Batching tasks allows more time for focused work, giving your brain a chance to zone in on a single job. For social media managers, one of the best ways to streamline work is to spend focused blocks of time creating social content, then scheduling it to post automatically at the appropriate time.
This also allows teams to collaborate more effectively, since you can set up workflows and approvals rather than running around trying to get sign-off on your quips in real time.
However, all of this can be a challenge for social platforms like Bluesky that have no native scheduling capabilities, but fear not, we’ve got some great news for you. You can schedule posts on Bluesky using Hootsuite. Here’s a step-by-step guide.
How to schedule Bluesky posts in 3 steps
Like we said, Bluesky does not have a native scheduling tool — it only offers real-time posting. However, you can schedule posts on Bluesky directly from your Hootsuite dashboard.
Let’s get you set up to schedule Bluesky posts and make your life a lot easier.
Tip: If you don’t have a Bluesky account set up yet, or you’re not sure why your business should be using this newer social media platform, we’ve got a whole blog post walking you through the Bluesky basics.
Step 1: Add your Bluesky account to Hootsuite
Note that you only have to do this once! When you return to schedule more Bluesky content in the future, you can start at step 2.
In your Hootsuite dashboard, click your profile icon, then click Social accounts and teams.
If you have a Professional, Business, or Enterprise account, click Manage, then Add a social account to connect your Bluesky account to your Hootsuite organization. Or, click +Private account to add your Bluesky account to your profile only.
If you have a Standard, Team, or Advanced account, click New, then Connect social accounts.
Choose Bluesky from the list of account types and follow the authentication instructions to authenticate and connect your account.
Step 2. Compose your Bluesky post
From your Hootsuite dashboard, click Create a post at the top right, or Create > Post from the left menu.
In the Publish to drop-down menu, choose your Bluesky account.
Write the caption for your post. Your caption can be up to 300 characters long, and can include @mentions, hashtags, emojis, and links. Not sure what to write? Check out the last section of this post for some tips.
If you add a link, you can customize the link preview with a name, description, and preview image.
Add photos, a GIF, or a video to your post (note that you cannot mix media types either in Hootsuite or natively on Bluesky). The post preview updates as you add components, so take a look to make sure you’re happy with your post.
Tip: Add alt text for your image, or add an SRT file (closed captions) for your video to make your post more accessible.
Step 3. Schedule your post
When you’re happy with your new post, click Schedule for later.
Hootsuite will automatically recommend the best times to post based on your own past posts and peak industry engagement times. These recommendations will get better as you post more to your Bluesky account.
You can choose the recommended time or manually set the time to whatever you like. When you’re ready, click Done, then Schedule.
That’s it! Your Bluesky post is scheduled and will automatically post at the selected time.
If you want to edit your post before it goes live, or change the scheduled posting time, click Plan in the left menu of the Hootsuite dashboard to open your content calendar.
You’ll see your scheduled Bluesky posts here alongside all your other social content. Just select your post, then click Edit to make your changes. If you want to delete your post instead, you can do that too.
Tip: If you want to create content to schedule for later but are not sure yet when you’d like it to post, you can save your post as a draft instead.
Just click Save as draft instead of Schedule for later. You can come back to edit your post and add it to your calendar whenever you’re ready.
Best practices for scheduling posts on Bluesky
Now that you know how to schedule posts on Bluesky, let’s look at some ways to maximize the results you see from your efforts.
Plan ahead — but leave space to post in the moment
Yes, it’s a huge benefit to schedule posts on Bluesky. But that doesn’t mean you should schedule all your Bluesky posts.
On Bluesky, discussions happen in real time. One of the main appeals of this platform is its more authentic community feel. An account that only posts scheduled content does not align with the culture here.
Rather than trying to automate your whole Bluesky strategy, think of content scheduling as a way to free up time for more authentic participation. Use scheduled posts to create a consistent presence, but allow time for real-time posting of threaded posts, trending topics, and discussions.
Pause scheduled content if vibes change
With Bluesky’s in-the-moment feel, you need to be aware of the temperature in the room.
Major world or local events, pop culture moments, and brand crises can all drastically change the vibes of the conversation. You need to make sure you don’t drop a scheduled post into a context that’s become inappropriate while you weren’t paying attention.
First, don’t schedule your content too far in advance. A couple of weeks should be your outer limit to make sure you stay relevant.
If something does happen that changes your social media content strategy, pause all scheduled content to give yourself a chance to adjust.
Find inspiration with social listening and AI
Here’s some good news to help with the previous point: You can always do a quick Bluesky vibe-check in Hootsuite Listening.
Hootsuite Listening doesn’t just track what people are saying — it uses enhanced sentiment analysis to tell you how they really feel. Enter any term in the Quick Search bar. Click on the Filters button to choose Bluesky as your data source, then click on Sentiment.
You can also use this tool to find inspiration for your Bluesky content. Use Quick Search with the Bluesky filter to discover trending hashtags and events worldwide, as well as the most popular creators and posts related to your search terms.
If you want more specific suggestions for content to post on Bluesky, click OwlyGPT in the left menu and ask this social AI assistant for Bluesky content ideas. You’ll get suggestions tailored to your brand based on the social accounts you’ve connected to Hootsuite.
Repurpose content from (or to!) other networks
A social media scheduling tool like Hootsuite has a benefit we haven’t discussed yet (although it relates back to avoiding platform/task switching). Rather than creating Bluesky posts in isolation, you can create customized posts to cross-promote your content on multiple social platforms, all from one screen.
This allows you to repurpose your content but adapt it to each platform for maximum engagement.
In addition to adapting word count, image size, and other technical details, don’t forget to adapt your style to each social network’s culture when cross-posting. On Bluesky in particular, that means aiming to sound like a real person, not a brand there primarily for social media marketing.
Need some help? Click on the Bluesky tab and then click Enhance with Owlywriter AI.
Optimize for time zone
There’s not a lot of data yet about the best times to post on Bluesky. Though, Hootsuite data shows the best time to post on Threads is 8 a.m. on Tuesday, while the best time to post on X (Twitter) is from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
It’s reasonable to extrapolate that it’s worth posting on Bluesky relatively early in the morning.
Because Bluesky shows posts in reverse chronological order by default, timing is critical here.
People are far more likely to see and engage with your content if you post it when they are actively using the platform. That means it’s important to stagger your posts to reach people in multiple timezones.
For example, within North America, posting around 9 a.m. Pacific time gets West Coast people in the morning, while potentially connecting with East Coast folks as they pause for lunch.
And know your audience. Schedule when they are most likely to be active in their time zone. But hey, Hootsuite recommendations can help, too.
As you already saw, Hootsuite will suggest recommended posting times based on your previous results. These recommendations will get better the more you post to Bluesky.
You can also use Hootsuite Listening to see when people are posting most about a certain topic on Bluesky. Again, enter your topic in the Quick Search bar and choose Bluesky as your media type under filters.
For instance, here we can see that people post most actively about gardening on Monday at 6 a.m. and Friday at 4 p.m.
Note: Make sure you post the right content for the right time of day (or week). Keep it casual in the evenings and on the weekends.
Collaborate with your team
One of the major advantages of scheduling social content using a dedicated social media dashboard like Hootsuite is that it provides the chance to collaborate with your team and set up approval workflows that give everyone the time they need to work effectively.
You can set up a Hootsuite workflow that allows all creative team members to add Bluesky posts to your social calendar. But before they go live, posts go to the relevant stakeholders for feedback and/or approval.
Managing all of your Bluesky content through your Hootsuite Planner means that content is queued up in time for a reasonable feedback process. No one has to run around tapping people on the shoulder, asking to move things along.
Once the designated stakeholder approves a post, no further work is required from the team, as it is already in the calendar and scheduled to post at the right time.
Keep in mind Each team member logs in to their own Hootsuite account, rather than logging into Bluesky directly. This is critical for keeping your organizational Bluesky app password secure.
Spark discussions
Active discussion is the name of the game on Bluesky. When planning your Bluesky content calendar, make sure to dedicate some posts to questions that could get a conversation going.
The caveat of course, is that if you’re going to start a discussion, you should be there to participate. You can schedule the post that kicks things off, as it’s good to have this in your content calendar for everyone to see. But plan to head to Bluesky pretty soon after it posts to join in the conversation as it unfolds, too.
Add tracking parameters to your links
When you use the Bluesky scheduling feature in Hootsuite, you can add tracking parameters to all your links directly within Composer. This allows you to see how much traffic each Bluesky post sends through to your website or blog.
You can add custom or preset parameters to any link, or choose to use the specific parameters that work with either Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics. Since adding these parameters makes your links much longer, it’s a good idea to use the built-on Ow.ly link shortener to create a shorter link.
Use Hootsuite to execute your Bluesky marketing plan alongside all your other social media activity. From a single dashboard you can monitor your competitors, grow your followers, schedule posts, and analyze your performance.
