Social media platform Milq, created by Don MacKinnon, Jordan Jacobs, and Tomi Poutanen, was founded upon the belief that today’s feed-based social media is stifling the generation and discovery of online content. With an all-star list of investors ranging from Viacom CEO Tom Freston to Bacardi CEO Michael Dolan, and from Google to Goldman Sachs executives, Milq is set to revolutionize the way we experience information online.

Milq is free to join, and it organizes content thematically in micro channels called Beads, which are cultivated and edited by members of the Milq community. A Bead is started when a Milq user asks a question about Music, Film/TV, Comedy, Sports, Fashion, Food/Drink, Art/Design, or Ideas. Other members join the conversation by posting audio or video responses, searching for content from YouTube, Vimeo, Soundcloud, and more, all of which is housed within Milq’s database. Users follow Beads and create a collection of posts and Beads that they love. Then, Milq’s powerful algorithms analyze users’ activity to create a personalized content flow based on their unique tastes.

This October, major publisher Simon & Schuster joins Milq as its exclusive partner in launching a new content category on the Milq platform, Books. Many Simon & Schuster authors have already jumped on board, starting Beads relating to their writing:

• Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs, CEO and forthcoming book The Innovators started a Bead called “Great Digital Innovations,” featuring vintage footage of the first video game ever created, called SpaceWar!, at MIT in 1962. He’s also posted footage of a 1968 technology demonstration, “The Mother of All Demos,” which, according to Isaacson, “remains unchallenged, even by recent Apple product launches.”
• Anna Todd, author of After, started a Bead called “Soundtrack to After,” in which she encourages readers and fans to post songs that they feel relate to the book.
• Other Simon & Schuster authors who have created Beads include Becca Fitzpatrick, Jenny Jan, Kresley Cole, and Christina Lauren.

“Milq is an exciting new and wholly original forum that will enable authors and readers to connect in a way that extends well beyond the previous limits of author-reader interaction,” says Ellie Hirschhorn, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Officer for Simon & Schuster. “For some time now we have avidly pursued new methods to satisfy the seemingly insatiable public appetite to learn more about the likes, interests and pursuits of their favorite authors: Milq can fulfill that role by letting authors share their enthusiasms with their readers on a social spectrum that ranges from expert and curator to friend and fan.”

Visit Milq.com or search for “Milq” on the App Store to learn more, join, and start Beading!