Developer Marketing Exercise

Solana Foundation

📧 loross@umich.edu 👤 Logan Ross 📅 January 2026
1

@solana_devs Twitter Strategy

Crypto Dev Twitter Audit

Developer Twitter is dominated by accounts that combine technical credibility with consistent engagement patterns. Here's who's winning and why:

Top Accounts to Study

Account Followers Focus Why They Win
@PatrickAlphaC 300K+ Dev Education Master of educational threads. 32-hour free courses. 1K+ bookmarks on technical threads.
@samczsun 156K+ Security Security research that goes viral. Post-mortems get massive engagement. Trusted voice.
@0xMert_ 277K+ Solana Native Helius CEO. Authentic advocacy + FUD rebuttals with data = massive engagement.
@armaniferrante 50K+ Solana Core Anchor creator. Technical credibility. Minimal but high-signal posts.
@dabit3 65K+ Web2→Web3 Bridges traditional devs to crypto. Clear explanations. Strong tutorial presence.
@jacobvcreech 30K+ Solana DevRel Official voice with authentic engagement. Good balance of announcements and community.

Patterns That Work

🧵

Educational Threads

5-10 tweet deep-dives. High bookmark rate. Gets shared in Discord servers.

💡

Quick Tips

Single actionable tip + code. High retweet potential. Daily engagement builder.

📊

FUD Rebuttals

Data-backed responses to criticism. Viral within community. Attracts fence-sitters.

😂

Meme + Truth

Humor draws attention, insight provides value. Algorithm loves engagement.

Posting Cadence That Works

  • Frequency: 2-3 posts daily (quality > quantity)
  • Best times: 9-11am EST (morning threads), 1-3pm EST (quick tips), 5-7pm EST (engagement/memes)
  • Thread days: Monday & Thursday mornings (highest bookmark rates)
  • Engagement days: Friday afternoons (devs winding down, more interactive)

Content Pillars

🔧

Build in Public

Showcase what devs are shipping on Solana

🧠

Technical Deep Dives

Threads explaining Solana concepts

🌟

Ecosystem Spotlights

Highlight projects and developers

⚡

Quick Tips

Bite-sized dev tips and tricks

30-Day Content Calendar

Click any event to see details and draft content.

February 2026

Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
1
🧵 Firedancer
2
💡 Confidential
3
🌟 MCPay
4
😂 SOL vs L2s
💡 ZK Compress
5
🧵 AI Agents
6
7
🌟 Unruggable
8
🧵 Alpenglow
9
💡 Retry Logic
10
🌟 Agent Kit
11
😂 $16B Stables
12
🧵 Token Ext.
13
💡 Anchor vs Pin
14
🌟 Week Wins
Threads
Quick Tips
Memes
Spotlights
Engagement

Example Tweets

@solana_devs • Thread Hook
Solana just ended its single-client era.

After 3 years of development, Firedancer is live on mainnet:

→ 50,000+ blocks produced
→ 100+ days running
→ 26% of validators now on Frankendancer
→ 1M TPS in test environments

Here's what this means for you as a developer 🧵
@solana_devs • Quick Tip
35-40% of Solana transactions fail on first attempt.

Don't panic. Here's your fix:

const sendWithRetry = async (tx, retries = 3) => {
  for (let i = 0; i < retries; i++) {
    try { return await connection.sendTransaction(tx); }
    catch { await sleep(500 * (i + 1)); }
  }
}

Your users don't need to know about retries. Just make it work.
@solana_devs • Spotlight
🏆 Meet MCPay — Cypherpunk Hackathon winner

9,000 hackers competed. 1,576 projects submitted. They won.

What impressed the judges:
→ Chain-agnostic payment rails
→ Developer-first API design
→ Production-ready in weeks, not months

The team is now in @Colosseum's accelerator with $250K pre-seed.

What are you building?
@solana_devs • Engagement
Let's talk.

👇 Drop what you're building on Solana in the replies.

We'll RT the most interesting ones and help where we can.

Whether it's:
• A hackathon project
• A production app
• Something you're stuck on
• An idea you're exploring

No project too small. Ship > Perfect.

👀👇
@solana_devs • Data Meme
Solana daily fees: $1.03M
Base daily fees: $0.8M
Arbitrum daily fees: $0.5M

Solana DEX volume (30d): $118B
Ethereum DEX volume (30d): $40B

4 consecutive months of dominance.

L2s are in a race to the bottom on fees.
Solana is monetizing activity.

Different games. Different outcomes.

Engagement Tactics

  • Reply Strategy: Actively search for devs asking Solana questions. Search "solana how do I", "anchor error", "@solana/web3.js help". Provide actual code solutions, not just doc links. Target 10+ helpful replies daily.
  • Quote Tweets: QT hackathon winners, ecosystem launches, and impressive dev builds. Add genuine context—not just "wow cool!" but specific technical praise that shows you understand what they built.
  • Community Building: Weekly "What are you building?" threads with 2+ hours of active engagement. Feature interesting replies in roundup posts. DM standout devs for deeper spotlights.
  • Cross-Promotion: Coordinate with @heaborantes_dev, @Colosseum, @SuperteamDAO on major announcements. Tag-team FUD rebuttals with Mert. Co-create content with Patrick Collins for reach into Web2 audience.

Success Metrics

Metric Current 30-Day Target How to Track
Follower Growth Baseline +15% (net) Twitter Analytics
Avg. Engagement Rate Baseline 3%+ on threads, 1.5%+ on tips Likes + RTs + Replies / Impressions
Link Clicks (to docs/tutorials) Baseline 500+ per thread UTM tracking via bit.ly or custom
Thread Completion Rate Baseline 40%+ (last tweet / first tweet impressions) Manual calculation from Twitter Analytics
Bookmark Rate Baseline 200+ bookmarks per educational thread Twitter Analytics (key signal for dev value)

🎁 Bonus: Collaboration Targets

Target Reach Collaboration Idea Priority
@PatrickAlphaC 300K+ Comprehensive "Learn Solana" course. Offer exclusive access to Solana team for technical review. His courses get millions of views. High
@samczsun 156K+ Security audit spotlight series. Invite him to review Firedancer's security model. His endorsement carries massive weight. High
@dabit3 65K+ Web2→Solana migration guides. Co-create "From React to Solana dApps" series. He excels at bridging traditional devs. High
@fireship_dev 500K+ (2M YT) "Solana in 100 seconds" video. His format is perfect for mass developer audience. Viral potential huge. Medium
@lexfridman 3M+ Long-form podcast with Anatoly or Raj. Deep technical discussion reaches audience outside crypto bubble. Medium
2

AI x Crypto Developer Campaign

The Narrative: Why Solana for AI?

AI agents are the new power users. They can't open bank accounts. They can hold Solana wallets. This is why Solana is becoming the settlement layer for the non-human economy.

Technical Positioning

  • Speed 400ms block times → 150ms with Alpenglow. AI agents need real-time execution. 12 seconds (Ethereum) is an eternity in AI.
  • Cost $0.00025 per transaction enables micropayments for inference, tip-based agent economies, and high-frequency automated trading.
  • Scale 65K TPS handles thousands of AI agents operating simultaneously. No gas wars, no congestion-based pricing.
  • Composability AI agents need access to the full stack: DeFi, NFTs, payments, data. All in one place, not fragmented across L2s.

Use Cases That Resonate with AI Devs

  • AI Agents with Wallets: Autonomous agents that can trade, stake, mint NFTs, and manage assets. The Solana Agent Kit makes this possible in minutes.
  • Inference Marketplaces: Nosana, io.net — decentralized compute at 50-80% lower cost than AWS. Pay per inference, no contracts.
  • Data Provenance: Grass has 2.5M+ users contributing ethically-sourced training data. Verifiable on-chain provenance.
  • Decentralized Compute: Render Network ($1.74B market cap) migrated from Ethereum to Solana. GPU rendering + AI training at scale.
  • Model Monetization: On-chain payments for model access. No Stripe fees, no geographic restrictions, instant settlement.

Differentiation from Competitors

Competitor Their Approach Solana's Advantage
Ethereum + L2s dAI team, ERC-8004 standard (late start) Production AI infrastructure NOW. $0.00025 vs $5-50 per tx. Sub-second finality vs 12 seconds.
NEAR (NVIDIA partner) NVIDIA partnership announcement, sharding pitch We have Render, Grass, io.net — real products with real users. Not just press releases.
Bittensor (TAO) Native AI blockchain, subnet model AI agents need a complete economy, not just compute. DeFi + NFTs + payments in one place.
Centralized AI (OpenAI/Anthropic) Simple APIs, reliable but centralized No rate limits. No privacy concerns. Your agents don't depend on a single provider's goodwill.

Target Channels

Where AI/ML engineers actually spend time — and how to reach them without triggering crypto skepticism:

🤗 Hugging Face Discord

100K+ members. Sponsor ML competitions with Solana prizes. Share Agent Kit tutorials in #showcase. Partner for model deployment workshops. Let the tech speak.

📰 r/MachineLearning

3.2M members. High-signal technical discussions. Skeptical of crypto hype. Share benchmarks (no shilling). Research paper style posts. Focus on infra advantages.

🎤 NVIDIA GTC 2026

250K+ attendees. Premier GPU/AI conference. Sponsor developer track. Demo Render/io.net. Joint booth with ecosystem projects.

🎯 Breakpoint 2026 (London)

5,000+ Solana devs. Dedicated AI x Solana track. Hackathon with AI prizes. Agent Kit workshops. Flagship moment for the campaign.

🎙️ Latent Space Podcast

Top AI engineering podcast. Deep technical discussions. Pitch episode on decentralized AI infrastructure. Technical deep-dive, not token talk.

🎙️ NVIDIA AI Podcast

Major AI audience. Pitch Render Network or io.net founders as guests. Focus on decentralized compute angle, not crypto speculation.

Content Strategy

Tutorials & Guides (Python/JS focus — languages AI devs know)

  • "Build an AI Agent with a Solana Wallet in 30 Minutes" — Step-by-step using Solana Agent Kit + LangChain. From zero to autonomous trading agent.
  • "Micropayments for API Inference: A Python Tutorial" — Pay-per-query model using SPL tokens. No Stripe, no subscriptions, instant settlement.
  • "Decentralized GPU Compute: Nosana vs AWS Cost Analysis" — Real benchmarks showing 50-80% cost savings. Appeal to budget-conscious ML teams.
  • "On-Chain Data Provenance for AI Training" — Using Grass for ethically-sourced web data. Verifiable training data origins.
  • "Multi-Agent Coordination on Solana" — ElizaOS tutorial for agent-to-agent communication and collective intelligence.

Case Studies

  • Render Network — $1.74B market cap GPU network. Why they migrated from Ethereum. Technical deep-dive on throughput requirements.
  • Grass — 2.5M users contributing training data. How they built a decentralized data moat. Token economics for data contributors.
  • SendAI / Solana Agent Kit — The standard toolkit for AI agents. Interview with founders on design decisions.
  • Virtuals Protocol — AI influencer agents with real wallets. Revenue-generating AI personalities.

Sample Apps & Templates

  • create-solana-agent — CLI template for instant AI agent setup. `npx create-solana-agent my-agent`
  • inference-payments-demo — Full-stack app for pay-per-query AI APIs with Solana Pay integration
  • multi-agent-swarm — ElizaOS-based multi-agent coordination example
  • gpu-marketplace-starter — Template for building on Nosana/io.net compute networks

AI Campaign Calendar

6-month campaign timeline with key milestones.

Month 1
🚀 Launch Campaign
📝 First Tutorials
Month 2
🏆 AI Hackathon
🤝 Partner Launch
Month 3
🎓 Workshop Series
📊 Case Studies
Month 4
🎤 Conference Push
💰 Grants Program
Month 5
📈 Scale Content
👥 Community Events
Month 6
🎯 AI Summit
📋 Campaign Review

Partnership Plays

AI Infrastructure Companies

  • Hugging Face — Model hosting integration. Solana-native inference endpoints. Co-branded hackathons. They have the models, we have the settlement layer.
  • LangChain / LlamaIndex — First-class Solana tooling in their frameworks. Agent Kit integration. Tutorial co-creation.
  • Replicate / Modal — Inference providers with crypto-curious user bases. Solana Pay integration for model APIs.

Academic Labs

  • Stanford HAI — Research grants for decentralized AI. Paper collaborations on agent economies. Credibility with ML researchers.
  • MIT Media Lab — Agent coordination research. Governance models for autonomous systems. Blue-chip academic partnership.
  • Berkeley AI Research (BAIR) — Open source culture aligned with crypto ethos. Research on decentralized training.

Developer Communities

  • Hugging Face Discord (100K+) — Sponsor competitions. Share tutorials in #showcase. Partner on workshops. Technical credibility building.
  • r/LocalLLaMA (500K+) — Self-hosted AI enthusiasts. Perfect for decentralized compute pitch. Share benchmarks, not hype.
  • AI Engineers Discord — Growing community of production ML engineers. Workshop series partnership. Real technical content.

Events & Activations

  • AI x Solana Hackathon (Month 2): $100K+ in prizes. Partner with Render, Nosana, Grass for sponsor tracks. Judges from AI companies (not just crypto). Focus on novel agent use cases, not DeFi clones.
  • Workshop Series (Bi-weekly, Months 3-6): "Build Your First AI Agent" → "Multi-Agent Coordination" → "Production Deployment". Stream on YouTube, clips for social. Build progressive skill ladder.
  • Conference Presence:
    • NVIDIA GTC (March) — Developer track sponsorship. Joint booth with Render/io.net. Focus on GPU compute narrative.
    • NeurIPS (Dec) — Research track presence. Paper collaborations. Academic credibility building.
    • Breakpoint (Sept) — Dedicated AI track. Flagship announcements. Ecosystem showcase.
  • AI Hubs Meetups (SF, NYC, Austin, London): Monthly in-person events in AI hotspots. Partner with local AI communities. Build real relationships, not just online presence.

Success Metrics

Metric 6-Month Target How to Track
AI Developers Onboarded 1,000+ new devs with deployed code GitHub stars on Agent Kit, tutorial completions, wallet connections
AI Projects Launched 50+ new AI projects on mainnet Ecosystem tracker, grant applications, project submissions
Tutorial Completions 5,000+ completions across all tutorials Page analytics, GitHub clones, feedback surveys
Hackathon Submissions 200+ AI-focused submissions Hackathon platform metrics, quality score by judges
Partnership Deals 3+ major AI company partnerships announced PR announcements, integration launches, co-marketing activities

🎁 Bonus: AI Projects on Solana to Showcase

Project Category Key Stats Showcase Angle
Solana Agent Kit AI Agents 60+ protocol integrations, TypeScript + LangChain "Build an autonomous agent in 30 minutes" tutorial series. The default toolkit.
Render Network GPU Compute $1.74B market cap, migrated from ETH Case study: Why they chose Solana. Cost/throughput comparison content.
Grass Data/Training 2.5M+ users, massive data network Data provenance story. Ethically-sourced AI training narrative.
io.net GPU Compute Aggregated GPU network, enterprise focus Cost comparison vs AWS/GCP. Enterprise AI infrastructure pitch.
Nosana AI Inference Decentralized inference marketplace Tutorial: Deploy your model without managing infrastructure.
Virtuals Protocol AI Agents AI agents with on-chain identities The "AI influencer" story. Revenue-generating agents use case.
ElizaOS Multi-Agent Agent-to-agent coordination framework Advanced tutorial: Multi-agent swarm intelligence on-chain.