By Mary C. Long, Chief Ghost, Digital Media GhostWhen Internet of Things (IoT) thought leaders take to social media, the way that they read and interact is both targeted and varied, much like IoT itself. And if you want to connect with them (or join their ranks) you need to understand how that interaction looks ahead of jumping on Twitter and blindly tweeting at them!And a report by Leadtail and Neustar on the social media activity of IoT leaders offers just that.It’s not surprising that much of these leaders’ chatter centers around the IoT and related topics, but the range of IoT-related topics is broad:

• Their Top 25 Mainstream Media Content Sources include TechCrunch and WIRED, naturally – but we also see broader business interests figure prominently, with Forbes and the Harvard Business Review making the list.
• Industry Media Content Sources shared most often runs the gamut from MIT Technology Review (#2) to SlashGear (#19), again demonstrating a diversity of interests.
• And the most popular keywords – in addition to Internet of Things – are robot, big data, wearable, and innovation.

So how can you expand on these ideas and connect meaningfully with these leaders? Keep tabs on leading Twitter handles, like @TechCrunch, @YouTube, @ThingWorx, and @WhiteHouse, (you’ll find more in the report) and identify niche areas of interest to tweet about yourself. There are notable advances announced every day, you just need to make a habit to search them out.Interested in cancer research? POC Medical Systems has a “lab in a box,” the Pandora CDx, offering low-cost and realtime screening capabilities “for other life-threatening diseases like Cancer, Cardiovascular disorders, Infectious diseases etc.” That’s certainly something to keep an eye on!Or maybe you’re interested in more of a wearable tech/digital health combo? There are tons of conversations happening around the web, some even speaking to its potential to help us cheat death!The report offers excellent insight for sourcing the people, publications, and vendors to interact with each day – and doing so should only take about 15 minutes of your time. Here’s how:

• Create public Twitter lists of niche areas. Adding people to lists is a way to give a nod to their expertise, and helps you quickly sort through online noise and find relevant tweets (and it helps them notice you too). Public lists are great for accomplishing all of that.
• Create private Twitter lists of niche areas too! Some lists you’ve taken time to curate should be kept private. You don’t want to do all the work for your competitors, now do you?
• Spend time each week scheduling retweets and replies to the Twitter handles that end up on both public and private lists you create (Buffer is a good too to accomplish this). And then pop back on to Twitter during the week to send some replies in real-time.

One final tip to get you started on that path toward IoT thought leader success: Make sure you’re consistent with your efforts! You have a smart phone, it’s time to get smart about using it – and interacting on Twitter is definitely one of those ways.And while you’re thinking about strategy, download the report to see who else is framing the conversation, and find your place in the mix.[author] About the Author: Mary Long is Chief Ghost at Digital Media Ghost, where she’s been scaring up traffic for websites, ghostwriting and teaching clients how to “do” online since 2010. Named to Kred’s Top 50 Social Media Bloggers, a Leading PR Pro by Entrepreneur Magazine and an Expert Marketer by Inc Magazine, Mary knows how to find – and get you noticed by – your target audience. [/author]