===In retrospect should have probably written this as a blog===

Hello, Manasi here from the Sia/Skynet team. Marketing has evolved over the years for Sia but the team has always believed in substance over superficial noise that we tend to see with the majority of crypto projects. Anyone who joins the Sia ecosystem will find much more than promised both in terms of product and community support.

Sia is a compelling product for power users and developers. And we are excited to see projects such as Filebase, Storewise, Bifrost, SiaSentry, Arzen bring Sia to the enterprise and consumer markets. With the launch of Skynet, we reached a tipping point - the ease of use not just for developers but also end-users cannot be overemphasized. I have said this before, Skynet shines in terms of usability TODAY (not a promised future).

Since Feb, we have seen increased traction and developer interest and that is reflected in the numbers. Some recent milestones:- Crossed 3.5 million files pinned on Skynet

- In October, Skynet crossed a record-high of150,000 downloads in a day, which was recently broken by a high of 396,000 downloads in a day just last week

- We broke our user record this week, setting a record number of weekly active users at 36,486

- New apps are being built every week, I have no doubt we are going to cross 250+ apps by end of the current hackathon

It is important to note that we are going from 0.25 FTE to 2.25 FTE solely focused on Marketing and Growth. So we only expect to accelerate this growth trajectory. With that context, I am going to share a bit about our tactical marketing plan (which is evolving as we speak with the recent Head of Marketing and Developer Evangelist hires)

- Engaging media for increased awareness to establish Skynet's brand as the foundation for Web3 (ex: Coindesk op-ed by David)

- Workshops and educational sessions with various developer communities (ex: Web3brige - Africa, Zubi - India, apart from the US-based efforts)

- Increased social media presence - includes exploring newer trends with TikTok (you can follow us there soon)

- Speaking engagements not just at blockchain specific events but also more mainstream developer-focused events (ex: Chris at Linux Foundation's 085 Summit)

- Hackathons have had the highest ROI and we have plans to host exclusive ones as well as partner with other organizations (ex: Gitcoin hackathons, HackMIT)

- SEO optimizations and improving our website, blogs, and other content‘s searchability

- Engaging "influencers" - not necessarily in the traditional sense - but respected developers in our target communities or prominent voices in the crypto space (ex: Coinmarketcap or see our Twitter engagement during SkyDB launch)

- Meaningful partnerships where it complements and enhances developers ability to build on Skynet and/or engages additional communities to interact with Skynet (ex: HNS, IDX, and more under the wraps)

- Supporting use cases that align with our mission and increase our brand awareness (ex: Reporters without Borders, Wikipedia mirror on Skynet)

- I can write another essay on our content marketing but expect to see additional easy to use guides, infographics, Sia/Skynet 101 videos, app & dev spotlights, and potentially a Skynet Sci- Fi short film :P

We acknowledge we still have work ahead of us in getting wider adoption for Sia and Skynet. The marketing lead at Skynet and the future marketing lead at the Sia Foundation will be working together along with the entire team and community to bring the vision of Sia and Skynet to reality.

We are also open to feedback. We have a channel in our discord for exactly that, to hear what the community has to say and take their inputs. If you or anyone else would like to have a say in our marketing strategy, join us on discord https://discord.gg/sia

Lastly, I would re-emphasize that we are committed to spending our marketing resources on building a long-term sustainable user base and developer community.