Waggener Edstrom Worldwide

SXSW Interactive kicks off March 8, and Waggener Edstrom has teamed up with Little Bird and Tater Tot Designs to create the Web app Hey Big Fish. The app helps you identify trends – see who is in fact an expert in his/her field (aka a Big Fish) and quickly identify meaningful conversations. Stop sifting through mounds of hashtags on Twitter, and stay in the loop with relevant conversations with Hey Big Fish.

Those who are going to SXSWi this year, Hey Big Fish can help you find people with whom you may want to interact while at the conference by allowing you to dive down to the topics and influencers that matter to you.

Competitive people will love logging into the app to see how they stack up against other influencers at SXSW.  Not only does it let you know where you rank but it also provides a cool dashboard to show why you rank the way you do.  Then, drill through who ranks above or below you in the pond.

You don’t have to be down in Austin to use Hey Big Fish: Just join the conversation via any relevant SXSW hashtag (#SXSW, #SXSWi etc) and track your influence – or your brand’s influence – at the event.

What we are seeing so far:

• We’ve now mapped out more than 72k people Tweeting about SXSW over the past few weeks.
• Who’s getting the most traction out of that whole 72K?  It’s led by individuals like designer Kevin Mullet (@kmullett), entrepreneur Lena West (@lenawest), Dave McClure (@davemcclure) and Hugh McCleod (@gapingvoid).
• Our partner, the CEO of Little Bird Marshall Kirkpatrick (@marshallk), has been replied to, retweeted or mentioned by people in the “Big Fish” group 58 times in the last few days, which ranks him the 2403^rd most-engaged-with person so far. That’s in the top 3% most engaged.
• Brands that are getting the most traction include IFC, BuzzFeed, Zola, Pure Volume and Taco Bell.
• People say that space is going to be a hot topic this year because of Elon Musk’s keynote – the space geeks making the biggest waves leading up to SXSW are: NASA’s Peter Edmonds (@peterdedmonds), Raytheon’s Stephanie L. Schierholz (@schierholz) and astronomer Nicole Gugliucci (@NoisyAstronomer).

This tool should be a great way for influencers to make the most of SXSWi. Please check out the app and follow @heybigfish to make waves at this year’s conference. Thanks to Little Bird and Tater Tot Designs for teaming up with us on this great project!