Take-Off for Little Bird

Little Bird, a US-based firm which helps clients identify influencers in social media and blogs, has launched a private beta version of its service, backed by $1 million in angel funding.

The firm, established in 2011 and formerly known as Plexus Engine, is using Wieden+Kennedy's Portland Incubator Experiment tech farm to develop the services and has piloted it with two dozen enterprise customers: it will now open it to a broader audience. Users can choose between a free preview or four subscription levels reportedly costing from $50 to $1,000 a month and covering individuals, small and medium businesses, and enterprises.

The funding was led by the Radical Investments fund of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, and also includes seven other investors, among them Hubspot co-founder Dharmesh Shah and early Twitter lead engineer Blaine Cook.

Little Bird analyses data from Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs to identify the most trusted and expert 'influencers', and says it will shortly add fresh sources including Google+, academic research citations and other structured social data. After analysis, the software helps users engage with the influencers and their content.

Founder and CEO Marshall Kirkpatrick (pictured), a former Editor of ReadWriteWeb, comments: 'This technology represents many of my data dreams come true and makes social media data easy to use by anyone to learn fast about anything.' Says Cuban: 'I think Little Bird is the future of authority identification and confirmation for social media and beyond.'

Web site: www.getlittlebird.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.