Houston's News makers Flock to Bluesky
H-Town Follows Post-Election Surge Away From X's "Toxic" Algorithm
Houston’s social media ecosystem is experiencing a significant realignment, with a barrage of local politicians, news organizations, and influencers deprioritizing Twitter/X and posting content on Bluesky. The open-source, Twitter-circa-2016-like platform is rapidly becoming a place to break and share local news.
Dozens of elected news makers are now actively using the site including Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher, Sen. Molly Cook, County Judge Lina Hidalgo, Rep. Gene Wu, Rep. Jon Rosenthal, Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, Commissioner Adrian Garcia, Commissioner Rodney Ellis, Judges Hilary Unger, Jason Cox, and many, many more. (Don’t worry, Evan Mintz is also there posting about the Ike Dike.)
And it’s not just a “left-wing echo chamber.” Folks like the Greater Houston Partnership, Space City Weather, emergency managers at Ready Harris, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and Fox News are there too.
Out in the cold? With the exception of ABC 13 local TV networks seem to be falling behind the curve, letting other outlets eat their lunch with an exploding audience of active users. The only TV reporters we’ve been able to find using the site to mine and share news appear to be ABC 13’s Miya Shay and KPRC’s Justin Stapleton.
The Houston Chronicle has already amassed over 21,000 followers on the platform. Consistent news breaker Scott Braddock from The Quorum Report is also using the site to post the latest on state and local politics.
Why it matters: Houstonians are rapidly losing trust with X after being force-fed a steady diet of right-wing political posts coupled with a lack of moderation against hate speech. With Elon Musk now admitting X is burying posts with links, local media organizations looking to drive traffic and grow their their audience are wise to start looking at alternative ways to engage.
Case in point: More than three hours after sharing a link to their more than 420,000 followers on X, this Fox 26 post garnered almost zero engagement and merely 700 views.
According to NBC, one newspaper in Mississippi is getting 20 times more engagement on Bluesky than on X.
Pittman’s outlet, the Mississippi Free Press, already has more followers on Bluesky (28,500) than it ever did on X (22,000), the platform formerly known as Twitter, and Pittman said the audience engagement on Bluesky is booming.
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