Tim O'Shaughnessy, CEO, LivingSocial

WASHINGTON, DC – If you’re a Facebook user, you’ve probably seen those “Pick Your Five,” lists. LivingSocial, the firm behind LivingSocial Deals and  Facebook applications Visual Bookshelf and Pick Your Five, has completed a $25 million Series B round of venture funding led by U.S. Venture Partners, with Grotech Ventures and Steve Case’s Revolution participating.

The company previously raised $5 million from Grotech and Steve and Jean Case in both 2008 and earlier this year.

Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO, tells us that the 65-employee company will be expanding aggressively and hiring throughout the year in both its DC office and in new markets for LivingSocial Deals.

The company says it will expand its LivingSocial Deals to four new cities, including Raleigh  Durham, Denver, Chicago and San Diego, and adding dozens more cities by the end of the year. The program sends discounted offers from local merchants to users who sign up for it.

“We’re hoping to get a large number of Southeast cities,” O’Shaughnessy says. “Raleigh Durham launched today and we have Atlanta, but we think there are a good number of attractive markets in the Southeast and we expect another four or five to go live this year.”

The company says users save from 50 to 70 percent at restaurants, spas, sporting events, hotels and local attractions through the program. We’ve seen a few attractive offers come through the service.

“With more than a million people already using LivingSocial Deals, online group buying is a movement that is clearly resonating with consumers,” said O’Shaughnessy.

Affiliate program launched

LivingSocial today also launched an affiliate program for sites large and small, producing a revenue opportunity for affiliates, such as blogs and other sites, and broadening the advertising reach for merchants.

LivingSocial affiliates can generate revenue by delivering amazing discounts targeted to their  readers.

O’Shaughnessy told us in an earlier interview that the company started in 2007 when Facebook opened its application interface to outsiders.

“We saw an opportunity for people to leverage recommendations from friends when trying to discover new content,” he told us. “It can help people make better decisions on what book to read next and show off the books you’ve read and list ones you want to read.

“We saw as a way to provide a new experience and overall found the formula worked, so we expanded it to a lot of things, such as restaurants, music and beer.”

O’Shaughnessy said he views “A little of what we do as filling some of the gaps newspapers used to. They traditionally had sections on books, movies and music.”The company now boasts a community of 85 million people.

The site posts more reviews daily than Amazon does, he told us.

Coming Tomorrow: Five Questions for Tim O’Shaughnessy.

More about LivingSocial:

LivingSocial helps users find the next great book, band, or beerLivingSocial helps users find the next great book, band, or beer

LivingSocial picks $5M

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• LivingSocial helps users find the next great book, band, or beer
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• Five questions for LivingSocial’s CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy

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Tags: DC, facebook, Grotech Ventures, LIvingSocial, LivingSocial Deals, Pick Your Five, Raleigh Durham, social networking, Steve Case, U.S. Venture Partners, venture funding, Washington