Bluesky starter packs
A starter pack is a list of accounts a new person can follow in one tap. Being in a good one, or making one people share, is the fastest honest way to grow on Bluesky.
What they are
A starter pack is a shareable page with a list of up to 150 accounts and up to three custom feeds. Someone new to Bluesky who opens it can follow everyone in it with one tap and subscribe to the feeds. Because so many people arrive on Bluesky through a link to a pack, being in the right packs is a steady source of followers who chose your topic.
Getting added to packs
- Find the packs in your niche: search Bluesky for your topic and "starter pack", and look at the profiles of the busiest accounts in your topic, whose packs are listed on their profile.
- Ask the maker directly and briefly, with a reason: what you post, how often, and why their followers would want it. Makers curate; a good ask helps them.
- Be worth adding first: a clear profile, a pinned post, a few weeks of posts on the topic.
Making your own
- Pick a tight topic with a name someone would search for. "Ceramics people" beats "Cool accounts".
- Choose 20 to 50 accounts who post about it now, not once. Include people smaller than you; they will share the pack.
- Add up to three feeds where the topic lives.
- Write the description as a promise: who is in it and why.
- Share it off Bluesky as well as on it: a newsletter, a Discord, a bio link. Packs bring people in from outside.
- Refresh it every few months. Remove accounts that stopped posting; add new ones.
Seeing the followers a pack brought
Bluesky does not say which pack a new follower came through. Updrift's Growth page splits your new followers by where they came from, including the starter packs it knows about, and shows how many from each still follow at 14 and 30 days. A pack that brings followers who stay is one to keep asking into; one that brings followers who leave is the wrong crowd.
Keeping it fresh
A pack full of accounts that stopped posting is a bad first impression of your corner of Bluesky. Once a quarter, open your pack, remove the quiet, add the new, and share it again. Each share is a new wave.
Questions
How many accounts can a starter pack hold?
Up to 150, plus up to three custom feeds. Packs of 20 to 50 well-chosen accounts get followed through more often than full ones.
Can I see who joined from a starter pack?
Bluesky does not report it directly. Updrift works it out from the hours around each new follower and the packs it knows about, and shows how many each pack brought and how many still follow a month on.
Should I be in packs outside my niche?
Only if the accounts in them would genuinely want to follow you. A pack of the wrong people brings followers who leave, which is worse than no followers.
See your own figures, free.
Followers by the hour, the posts that landed, your best hours and how your hashtags do. One account, no card, for good.
The Planner, the Inbox and the full What works report come with a paid plan, 7 days free. See the plans.