Connected Home: Top 100 Influencers and Brands

Connected home (also known as smart home, or home automation) involves the control and automation of lighting, heating, ventilation, air conditioning and security, as well as home appliances such as washer/dryers, ovens or refrigerators/freezers. Modern systems generally consist of switches and sensors connected to a central hub from which the system is controlled with a user interface, often via the internet. The connected home market is predicted to be worth almost US$150 billion globally by 2020, representing 35% average annual growth over this period.

WHAT ARE THE EXPERTS SAYING?

We reached out to some of the top influencers on our list to ask them for their views on connected home. We spoke to Evan Kirstel (#1), Andreas Staub (#2), Carley Knobloch (#5), Christopher Danvers (#7), Fabienne Neymarck (#10), Glen Gilmore (#11), J Michael Palermo IV (#16), Tamara McCleary (#14). Be sure to follow them to stay up to date on the best content and resources on crowdfunding.

Evan Kirstel – Social Media Business Strategist (Advisor) at UCStrategies.com
“While tech giants all want to sit at the center of the smart home, its unclear as to the route to success, especially the winning economic model. Some will just sell hardware while others will try to sell services, such as video/security, as well as devices, while providing managed services. The products that will sell into the smart home will be diverse, personal and internet connected. That should give plenty of companies a shot at winning in the home—but only if & when consumers decide to buy them en masse!”

Andreas Staub – Managing Partner FehrAdvice & Partners AG
“Smart Home is at the beginning. More comfort with intelligent fridges or sustainability through efficient energy control will be mainstream. And of course, embedding the IoT in our lives and the usage of more connected devices will raise questions about security and privacy. Behavioral insurance or telematics – today focused on connected cars – will include the connected home and healthcare. In this sense the most interesting aspects are not the “smart things” or the tech but the dimension of behavioral change. Are we and our decision making getting smarter? That’s where Behavioral Economics will contribute with a lot of insights.”

Carley Knobloch – CEO & Founder of CarleyK.com
“We’ve seen pretty much any device you can think of can become “connected” in recent years (Belts? Forks?!), but it’s time to move to the next level of intelligence. Consumers want connected home devices that offer peace of mind and anticipate their needs: Think locks that text you when your kids get home from school, or a thermostat that turns itself down when you leave for work. Connected devices that are tapping into deep consumer needs by making good use of the data they’re collecting are going to be the winners in the field. In other words, thoughtful is the new smart.”

Christopher Danvers – Vice President Payments & Digital Services at American Airlines Federal Credit Union
“Beyond controlling your house remotely or via voice control with new devices like the Amazon Echo, there’s a huge opportunity to advance payments through the connected home.  As payments for your everyday items become more invisible; occurring as you naturally move throughout your day, the connected home will play a large role in the future of commerce.   Today we explicitly make a payment with a card or by tapping a mobile device, but devices (IoT) can intuitively make everyday payments on your behalf.   Think about the thermostat or water meter that pays your utilities every month, or better yet helps you manage your utility usage within your household budget.  Or, your fridge that senses when you’re running low on your everyday items and orders grocery delivery or pickup at your local store based on your calendar and regular commute schedule.”

Fabienne Neymarck – Sales Administration at Ascendeo France
“The house becomes smart and now obeys every word. Everything is controlled, more often, by the smartphone and the offer is simple. Nowadays, the real interest for safety, health and energy optimization is growing. The connected home market arouses envy of internet’s giants to the famous groups, through telecom operators and start-ups.”

Glen Gilmore – Principal at Gilmore Business Network
“At the moment, “smart homes” can be dumb and dangerous homes when connected devices don’t have proper cybersecurity, giving hackers easy entry into a connected home. We’ve seen baby monitors hacked with images broadcast online and refrigerators used to introduce malware to computer systems. We’ve also already seen an instance of a massive number of connected home devices being “weaponized” to knock out websites like Twitter and the New York Times. Despite how alarming the scary stories about smart homes sound, the real story is that connected homes will become commonplace in the very near future. Past instances of smart home cybersecurity breaches are leading to tougher standards to protect consumers and to make homeowners aware of the responsibilities that come with a connected home. Yes, this means that your smart refrigerator may need a password and that some of your older “smart” appliances may need to be replaced! We live an age when nearly every consumer product is being connected to the internet, hence the term, “the Internet of Things”. Whether you like it or not, you, too, will soon be living in a connected home as you naturally upgrade your home appliances. The lesson? Get smart about smart homes!”

J Michael Palermo IV – Sr. Alexa Evangelist at Amazon Smart Home
“Voice is the future – we believe that voice will fundamentally improve the way people will interact with technology. It can make the complex simple—it’s the most natural and convenient user interface.”

Tamara McCleary – CEO & Brand Ambassador at Thulium
“At the intersection of the Internet of Things and Machine Learning we land upon the greatest driver of innovation: human convenience. At the apex of future ease is the Connected Home. Human convenience is easily assimilated into human necessity, and resistance is futile. Remember when inflight Wi-Fi was a delicious miracle? Now it’s an expectation causing much duress if unavailable. I predict the Connected Home will be woven into the fabric of our daily human existence as an expectation, and it’s fast approaching a neighborhood near you. Even touch-screens will become obsolete as we discover the convenience of voice activation versus the inconvenience of needing a finger to touch a screen. Any object requiring physical manipulation will begin to vanish, and yes, *gasp* this will include our beloved mobile phones. Voice enabled devices in Connected Homes will become the standard, and machine learning will catapult us into the realm of voice contextual sensing, enabling an autonomous-like home which senses what we need and accommodates us based upon learning to listen for context. The Connected Home will monitor our energy efficiency, our health, wellness, food spoilage, pantry inventory and purchasing, home environmental quality, external environmental quality, and personalized entertainment. Security and privacy are up next to bat in the opportunity for wider acceptance and generalized adoption in the Connected Home space. I’m optimistic for a home run.”

TOPIC ANALYSIS

MAPPING THE COMMUNITY

We were very interested in seeing which brand and individuals were leading the discussion around connected home, so we analysed over 53K tweets mentioning the key words: “Connected Home” OR “Connected Homes” OR connectedhome OR connectedhomes OR “Smart Home” OR “Smart Homes” OR smarthome OR smarthomes from the 20th August – 20th October 2016. We then identified the top 100 most influential brands and individuals leading the discussion on Twitter. What we discovered was a very engaged community, with much discussion between individuals and brands. Below you can see a network map of the online conversation with number one individual Evan Kirstel at the centre. This map was created with our Influencer Relationship Management software (IRM). Be sure to click on the map to enjoy the full size network diagram in greater detail.

Below you can see another network map created with our Influencer Relationship Management software (IRM) showing the number 1 brand CNET at the centre and all the conversations to and from the influencers in their field. If you are interested in learning more about identifying, managing and engaging with influencers click here to get in touch!

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TOP 100 INDIVIDUALS

We looked at all the individuals engaging on Twitter to bring you a list of the top influencers in connected home. Below is the top 50, if you want to see who ranks from 50-100 be sure to download the full report by clicking the download button below.

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Rank	Twitter Handle	Name	Influencer Score
1	@evankirstel	Evan Kirstel	100
2	@andi_staub	Andreas Staub	72.61
3	@mounirzok	Mounir Zok	44.22
4	@thedavedev	David Isbitski	38.69
5	@CarleyKnobloch	Carley Knobloch	33.22
6	@HinaMunirGER	Hina Munir	25.24
7	@kingofpayments	Christopher Danvers	24.2
8	@AidyWoodrup	Aidy Woodrup	23.6
9	@OttLegalRebels	Marc R Gagné MAPP	22.91
10	@ArkangelScrap	ArkangelScrap	19.68
11	@GlenGilmore	Glen Gilmore #SocBiz	19.48
12	@roomeezon	Imran Hafeez Panhwar	19.45
13	@CEDIA_Vin	Vincent Bruno	17.26
14	@TamaraMcCleary	Tamara McCleary	17.02
15	@JMOTA3	Johnny Mota	15.67
16	@palermo4	J Michael Palermo IV	15.15
17	@RoadWarriorsUSA	Kevin Hill	14.88
18	@CustomisedStaff	Customised Anna	13.68
19	@ryanmathews	Ryan	13.36
20	@kreativfaktor	N.Schumann / Bremen	13.16
21	@Methone	Methone	12.73
22	@newscaster	Kimberly Lancaster	12.45
23	@RichSimmondsZA	Rich Simmonds	12.36
24	@M_Ritter	Michael Ritter	12.33
25	@kimballhal	Hal Kimball	12.01
26	@juliejacobson	Julie Jacobson/CEPro	11.73
27	@alexwoodcreates	Alex Wood	11.61
28	@MikeQuindazzi	Mike Quindazzi	11.01
29	@carolyntweet	Carolyn Devadawson	10.48
30	@COatParks	Chris O’Dell	10.42
31	@phoebusboy1	phoebusboy1	10.06
32	@jamesdearsley	James Dearsley	9.97
33	@FreedomFireCom	Michael E Lemm	9.88
34	@wrightsew	Eric Wright	9.87
35	@Pjotrww	Pieter de Wit	9.86
36	@grattonboy	Dean Anthony Gratton	9.56
37	@AlexHorovitz	Alex Horovitz	9.51
38	@SmallBizResCafe	Michael Lemm	9.37
39	@GiraUK01	Muir Baxter (GIRA)	9.19
40	@StacieinAtlanta	Stacie H Connerty	9.17
41	@garyjdavis	Gary Davis	9.06
42	@cybersecboardrm	Bob Carver	9
43	@ivoryegg	Ivory Egg	8.96
44	@w9bed_bryan	Bryan Davis	8.84
45	@ckindel	Charlie Kindel	8.81
46	@83Kindy	kindy Dramé	8.7
47	@lisabriercliffe	Lisa B	8.54
48	@apthomas	Andrew Thomas	8.49
49	@thebrandbuilder	Olivier Blanchard	8.47
50	@kaikreuzer	Kai Kreuzer	8.41

 

TOP 100 BRANDS

We also looked at all the brands engaging on Twitter to bring you a list of the top brands talking about connected home. Below is the top 50, if you want to see who ranks from 50-100 be sure to download the report to get the full top 100 list, and see who are most the influential brands in connected home.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT

Rank	Twitter Handle	Name	Influencer Score
1	@CNET	CNET	100
2	@HelloInspire	Inspire	85.48
3	@RWW	ReadWrite	50.75
4	@SmarthomeInc	Smarthome Inc.	42.24
5	@LSI_France	LE SAVOIR INDUSTRIEL	35
6	@smartcityfeed	Smart City Feed	32.14
7	@Things_Internet	Internet of Things	30.51
8	@TechRepublic	TechRepublic	28.38
9	@CNETSmartHome	CNET Smart Home	27.97
10	@frenchweb	frenchweb	27.42
11	@Nubryte	NuBryte	26.11
12	@Smart__Homes_	Smart Homes	25.44
13	@BoschGlobal	BoschGlobal	25.37
14	@timesofindia	Times of India	24.92
15	@panasonic	Panasonic Corp.	24.75
16	@Digi_Tech_sm	Digi-tech	23.69
17	@FastCompany	Fast Company	22.59
18	@AlarmDotCom	Alarm.com	22.41
19	@itknowingness	IT Knowingness	20.83
20	@ZWave	Z-Wave	20.72
21	@EDFofficiel	EDF Officiel	20.56
22	@TheNextWeb	The Next Web	17.97
23	@_shadeworks	Shade Works	17.05
24	@ZWave_Alliance	Z-Wave Alliance	16.98
25	@netatmo	Netatmo	16.84
26	@Smarthomesimply	Smarthome-simplified	16.16
27	@IBCIPL	Business Excellence	15.85
28	@CEDIA	CEDIA	15.06
29	@TillmanDomotics	Tillman Domotics	15.05
30	@_ConnectedHome_	Connected Magazine	15.02
31	@AutomatingMan	Smart Home Insights	14.8
32	@binaryloom	The Binary Loom	14.21
33	@BoschPresse	BoschPresse	13.63
34	@Smart_Summit	Smart Summit Series	13.5
35	@ThingsVentures	ThingsVentures	13.37
36	@SquidAutomates	Squid Automates	13.26
37	@BYourSmartHome	buildyoursmarthome	13.15
38	@smartthings	SmartThings	12.93
39	@SmartHomeSolver	Smart Home Solver	12.83
40	@iotworldnews	IoT World News	12.63
41	@cbundy711	Cbundy	12.63
42	@nest	Nest	12.15
43	@Control4	Control4	11.71
44	@ParksAssociates	Parks Associates	11.52
45	@StartUpRealTime	StartUpNews	11.28
46	@Smart_QUBE	SMART QUBE	11.24
47	@EnergyCurb	Curb	10.74
48	@Lutron	Lutron Electronics	10.63
49	@heiseonline	heise online	10.48
50	@BestShopBee	BestShopBee	10.25

 

At Onalytica we love building these lists and want to give back to our loyal readers as much as we can. If you’re interested in other topics (such as Virtual Reality, Digital Health, Digital Marketing) be sure to have a gander on our blog or why not propose some topics to us on twitter? We also build some very cool software to manage all of these influencers. Get a free demo today by clicking the button below!

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Disclaimer: As ever with these lists, it must be stressed that the ranking is by no means a definitive measurement of influence, as there is no such thing. The brands and individuals listed are undoubtedly influential when it comes to driving discussion around connected home.

The PageRank based methodology we use to extract influencers on a particular topic takes into account the number and quality of contextual references that a user receives. These calculations also take into account a user’s relevance (number of tweets on topic) and reach (number of followers). If you want to learn more, please read our article that outlines influencer identification.

Graphics Provided by www.vecteezy.com

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