Follow the right people on Twitter and they’ll tell you everything you wanted to know about drones — and even the stuff you didn’t want to know know. What are the latest drone-related lawsuits out there? What new products are coming on the market? And oh, god, did ANOTHER drone just crash somewhere near The White House?
For the drone enthusiasts of the world, there are too many accounts and too little time. If you only have time for 10, here are my picks.
Drone Analyst: For business insights, Colin Snow aka @DroneAnalyst is your guy. There’s insight on who is using them, and how many people are using them. There’s sales data, and there are stories about how drones are changing businesses. Like, um, BMW:
Pushing the limit of camera #drones to get the perfect shot for BMW commercial https://t.co/OQYF9VyVfQ pic.twitter.com/8dIqc992g7
— Drone Analyst (@droneanalyst) January 28, 2016
Gregory McNeal: McNeal has mastered the art of the RT, aggregating the best of the best. He focuses on policy, law and business. But he also is good about giving real-time insight into the drone community from the myriad of conferences and events he is visiting. Like this tweet:
Drone is one of the most used words at #CES2016 pic.twitter.com/WtoQeCzdkG
— Greg McNeal (@GregoryMcNeal) January 7, 2016
Ryan Mac: Mac captured my attention with an interesting profile he wrote about DJI in Forbes, but his drone reporting hasn’t stopped there. He also covers e-commerce, tech and music for Forbes. His tweets like this one make me jealous:
I went skiing with drones and ended up looking like Shaun White (kinda). https://t.co/LsVpQ6bh04 pic.twitter.com/KWw09hcfLG
— Ryan Mac (@RMac18) January 19, 2016
Matt McFarland: McFarland is editor of The Washington Post’s innovations blog, and his feed is filled with self-driving cars, hoverboards and of course drones. It’s deeply personal (as far as Internet personas go), with glimpses of him falling off hoverboards, but also provides interesting takes on what everyone is talking about right now. Just a few weeks ago, that was Disneyland drones:
Disney wants to have its cake and fly drones too.
My story on its no-fly zone and efforts to tweak it https://t.co/YgHd41CiuJ
— Matt McFarland (@mattmcfarland) January 22, 2016
Helen Greiner: Greiner is CEO of CyPhy Works, and her feed @HelenGreiner is chock full of interesting drone stories, keeping followers up to date on drone delivery, drones doing donuts, and other entertaining, related stories on things like “How to Build a Life-Size BB-8.”
That Drone Show: No Twitter account captures the spirit of the drone hobbyist community the way @ThatDroneShow does. The account is full of photos showing the latest drone designs people are using and events people are attending. It’s overloaded with enthusiasm for drones — after all, their mantra is Drones Are Good! This account is loaded with personality and makes me wish I was flying a drone always. Like this:
New daddy present. How do we fly the Tie Fighter? #starwars #drone #tiefighter pic.twitter.com/04HzoieHkt
— That Drone Show (@thatdroneshow) January 29, 2016
Brendan Schulman: Schulman, who works as the Vice President of Policy & Legal Affairs at DJI, is my go-to for policy and law news. I find myself relying on it for alerts about new drone legislation. Often @dronelaws is the one breaking news:
First look at an FAA drone registration certificate. (No, not mine.) pic.twitter.com/BxiLhYgSKR
— Brendan Schulman (@dronelaws) December 21, 2015
Jonathan Rupprecht: In the same vein, @rupprechtlaw tweets mostly news about drone-related laws. He’s a commercial pilot and attorney, and he frequently gives his opinions on the latest drone rulings.
Kike Calvo: I really like @KIKECALVO, which tends to focus on the art and photography aspect of drones. That shouldn’t be a surprise; he serves as a photographer with National Geographic and is regularly posting photos of drones or useful links around topics like “best drones for photography.”
Altasia On Drones: @Alt_copter is a site purely about drone news. Based in the Netherlands, it serves as a handy RSS feed of relevant drone stories. It also has original photos — like the hawk that is intercepting drones:
Trained birds of prey to intercept hostile #drones. Meet them @Tusexpo 2016 https://t.co/kzbVhPU5Un #Tusexpo pic.twitter.com/wJMT5WsTuq
— Altasia on Drones (@Alt_copter) February 2, 2016
Oh and of course, do follow me. Please! You can find me @TheDroneGirl.