6 Questions on Social Media With Aris Michalopoulos

We’re pleased to welcome Aris Michalopoulos to our expert interview series today. Aris is the founder and CEO of empeopled, a conversation platform that delivers its users a feed of high-quality content and conversations related to their interests while giving them an opportunity to earn their voice and be heard in the topics they care about.

Prior to empeopled, he worked at Citadel Investment Group, where he was a Director of crude derivatives trading. Empeopled is Aris’ third social media company. He founded college social network WhoUp.com in 2004 and mobile social networking exchange application Snex in 2008. Aris holds a degree in economics from the University of Chicago, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 2005.

Aris is passionate about transforming social media into a medium of action and believes that by bringing political structure to social tools, we can help the world solve its biggest problems. He is a 2014 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Chicago.

6 Questions on Social Media With Aris Michalopoulos

1. How did you get your start in the industry?

In 2004 I founded WhoUp.com, a college social network that had a strong feature set but never gained the critical mass of user adoption to really take off. I’ve been active in the space for about a decade, hooked by the possibilities that connecting people online brings to the table – possibilities we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of so far.

2. What is the biggest challenge facing your industry?

There’s no shortage of social networks or apps that let users talk to each other in various, nuanced ways. But with this massive amount of content that never stops flowing, there’s no way to filter it down to the level of seeing who you should really be paying attention to and what content you should care about. This problem will be solved first and foremost by providing people with a way to organize themselves and, as a result, better organize the content they share.

3. What is the method to your business success? What inspires you?

As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to get bogged down in the details. I stay inspired by focusing on the big picture. In the case of empeopled, our goal is to build a platform that stratifies users and content by topic and inspires social change.

4. What do you think is the future of social media?

As social media becomes more and more personalized, these platforms will become increasingly more effective at inspiring and organizing people to action.

5. What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out?

The idea comes first, then the team and then the execution. Be confident in your idea, build a great team and then focus your attention on executing to the best of your ability.

6. Where can we find you on the web/on Twitter/Facebook/etc.?

Check out our platform and join the conversation at empeopled.com. Join an existing society or start your own discussion and let us know what you think.

We’re also on Facebook and Twitter.

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