# Actor Intelligence

## Overview

The **Actor Intelligence** module provides deep, account-level intelligence about the social media handles active in your project. Where standard project data reflects what an author has posted within your dataset, Actor Intelligence draws on [Blackbird.AI](http://Blackbird.AI)'s data lake and real-time sourced data to give you a broader view of the account — including global posting behavior, follower and following network composition, location signals, and bot classification.

When Actor Intelligence data is available for a handle, the author's name appears as a clickable link throughout Constellation. Clicking that link opens the Actor Intelligence modal.

> **Note:** Actor Intelligence is an optional add-on and is currently supported for X (formerly Twitter) accounts. Support for additional platforms will be added in the future. Contact your [Blackbird.AI](http://Blackbird.AI) account manager for access and pricing information.


### What You Can Do

* **Understand** an author beyond their project activity using global account-level data
* **Assess** bot classification with a clear determination and a plain-language explanation of the reasoning
* **Identify** where an author is located using both self-reported and AI-estimated location signals
* **Analyze** posting patterns to understand which hours of the day an account is most active
* **Explore** the network composition of an author's followers and the accounts they follow
* **Filter** authors by Audience Cohort composition directly from the Segment Bar


## Accessing Actor Intelligence

When Actor Intelligence data is available for an author, their handle is displayed as a clickable link. When it is not available, the handle is displayed as plain, non-clickable text.

Actor Intelligence can be accessed from the following views in Constellation:

* **Authors page** — Click any linked author handle in the Authors Table
* **Posts page** — Click any linked author handle in the Author column
* **Narrative Details** — Click any linked author handle in the Author table


## The Actor Intelligence Modal

Clicking a linked author handle opens the Actor Intelligence modal. The modal is organized into four sections:

* **Author Summary**
* **Author Classification Details**
* **Posting Activity by Hour**
* **Network Analysis**


## Author Summary

The Author Summary section displays global account-level metrics for the selected handle. All figures reflect the author's activity across the entire platform — not just within your project.

| Metric | Description |
|  --- | --- |
| **Followers** | Total number of accounts following this author globally |
| **Following** | Total number of accounts this author follows globally |
| **All-time Engagement** | Total engagement accumulated across all of this author's posts globally |
| **All-time Posts** | Total number of posts ever created by this account |
| **Bot Classification** | [Blackbird.AI](http://Blackbird.AI)'s determination of whether this account exhibits bot-like behavior, displayed as a **Bot** or **Not Bot** indicator |
| **Profile Location** | The location listed directly on the author's social media profile or post content (self-reported) |
| **Estimated Location** | [Blackbird.AI](http://Blackbird.AI)'s estimated location for this account, derived from behavioral signals, posting patterns, content, language, and other indicators |


**Pro Tip:** Use the gap between Profile Location and Estimated Location as an early indicator of potential deception or coordinated inauthentic behavior — accounts that misrepresent their location often show discrepancies between the two fields.

## Author Classification Details

The **Author Classification Details** section provides a plain-language explanation of how [Blackbird.AI](http://Blackbird.AI) arrived at its bot classification and estimated location determination for the account.

Actor Intelligence includes [Blackbird.AI](http://Blackbird.AI)'s latest bot classifier. When Actor Intelligence is not available for an account, the standard bot classifier is used in its place.

This explanation is generated to be accessible to both technical and non-technical analysts — it describes the specific behavioral signals, posting patterns, content characteristics, and other factors that informed the system's determination, without requiring familiarity with the underlying models.

> **Note:** Author Classification Details applies to both the **Bot Classification** and the **Estimated Location** determinations. Review this section alongside both fields for full context.


## Posting Activity by Hour

The **Posting Activity by Hour** chart displays a bar graph of the account's posting frequency broken down by hour of the day (UTC). This data reflects the author's global posting history across all of their posts on the platform — not just posts within your project.

Use this chart to understand when an account is most active and to identify patterns that may be relevant to your analysis, such as activity concentrated outside of the expected hours for the account's stated location.

## Network Analysis

The **Network Analysis** section reveals the cohort composition of the accounts in this author's network. It is divided into two subsections: **Audience Cohorts** and **Following Cohorts**.

### Audience Cohorts

**Audience Cohorts** displays the cohort classifications that [Blackbird.AI](http://Blackbird.AI) has assigned to the accounts that follow this author. This reveals the composition of the author's audience — who is actually consuming and engaging with their content.

If an author's follower list exceeds the display limit, a **+N more** indicator is shown.

### Following Cohorts

**Following Cohorts** displays the cohort classifications of the accounts that this author follows. Analyzing which cohorts an account tends to follow can reveal ideological alignment, areas of interest, and network affiliations that may not be apparent from the author's own posts alone.

If the following list exceeds the display limit, a **+N more** indicator is shown.

### Associated Cohorts

**Associated Cohorts** displays any cohort classifications that [Blackbird.AI](http://Blackbird.AI) has ever assigned to this account — regardless of whether those cohorts are active in your current project. This provides a broader view of how [Blackbird.AI](http://Blackbird.AI) has historically classified this account.

## Filtering by Audience Cohort

When Actor Intelligence data is available for your project, an **Audience Cohorts** filter option appears in the **Segment Bar** on the Authors page. This filter allows you to find authors whose followers belong to specific cohorts — a distinct capability from the standard **Cohorts** filter, which filters by the author's own cohort classification.

**To filter by Audience Cohort:**

1. Open the **Segment Bar** on the Authors page
2. Select **Audience Cohorts** from the filter options
3. Use the search bar to locate the cohort or cohorts you are interested in
4. Select one or more cohorts to apply the filter
5. The Authors Table and Stats Bar will update immediately to reflect the filtered results


> **Note:** The Audience Cohorts filter is only available when Actor Intelligence data has been processed for your project. If you do not see this filter option, contact your [Blackbird.AI](http://Blackbird.AI) account manager.


## Tips & Best Practices

### For Bot Investigation

* **Read the Author Classification Details** — The plain-language explanation often surfaces the most actionable signals; do not rely solely on the Bot/Not Bot indicator
* **Cross-reference posting hours with Profile Location** — Accounts claiming to be in one timezone but posting consistently in another may warrant further investigation
* **Use Bot Classification alongside Risk Signal columns** — The Authors Table's Bot-like column and the Actor Intelligence modal's Bot Classification field are complementary; use both for thorough triage


### For Location Analysis

* **Compare Profile Location and Estimated Location together** — Discrepancies between these two fields are a meaningful signal and should inform your analysis
* **Use Author Classification Details for context** — The explanation section clarifies which specific signals (language, posting time, content patterns) drove the Estimated Location determination


### For Network Analysis

* **Use Audience Cohorts to identify influence reach** — An author with a large following composed of high-risk cohorts may have outsized influence on those communities even if their own content appears neutral
* **Use Following Cohorts to surface alignment** — What an account follows is often a more reliable signal of affiliation than what it posts directly
* **Filter by Audience Cohort in the Segment Bar** — Use this to efficiently surface authors whose follower base is concentrated in cohorts of interest


## Troubleshooting

### "The author handle is not clickable"

* Actor Intelligence data is not available for this account — either the account is on a platform not yet supported (Actor Intelligence currently supports X only), or Actor Intelligence has not been processed for your project
* Contact your [Blackbird.AI](http://Blackbird.AI) account manager to confirm whether Actor Intelligence is enabled for your project


### "Estimated Location or Author Classification Details is blank"

* These fields are populated by [Blackbird.AI](http://Blackbird.AI)'s AI models and may not be available for all accounts
* If these fields are consistently empty across many authors, confirm with your account manager that Actor Intelligence processing is active for your project


### "Audience Cohorts or Following Cohorts is empty"

* Not all accounts have a sufficient follower or following network for cohort classification to be performed
* This field will be blank for accounts with very small or unclassified networks


### "I do not see the Audience Cohorts filter in the Segment Bar"

* The Audience Cohorts filter only appears when Actor Intelligence data has been processed for the current project
* If the filter is missing, Actor Intelligence may not be active for your project — contact your [Blackbird.AI](http://Blackbird.AI) account manager for assistance


## Summary

The Actor Intelligence module extends Constellation's author analysis capabilities with account-level intelligence drawn from [Blackbird.AI](http://Blackbird.AI)'s data lake and real-time sources:

* **Author Summary** for global account metrics including followers, following, engagement, post count, bot classification, and location signals
* **Author Classification Details** for a plain-language explanation of how bot classification and estimated location were determined
* **Posting Activity by Hour** for a global view of the account's hourly posting behavior
* **Network Analysis** for cohort-level insight into who follows this account (Audience Cohorts), who this account follows (Following Cohorts), and how [Blackbird.AI](http://Blackbird.AI) has historically classified this account (Associated Cohorts)
* **Audience Cohorts filter** in the Segment Bar for finding authors by the cohort composition of their followers