Geekout with Matt Navarra

Katie Carroll heads up LinkedIn News for North America and the UK. In a world where social media is rife with misinformation and trashy stories that waste your time, LinkedIn curates and packages news to help the platform's professional audience get the information they need to help them do their jobs better. Matt Navarra and Martin SFP Bryant spoke to Katie about LinkedIn's approach to news, the challenges it faces, and how users can get more out of the platform. Follow Matt and Martin on...

Stan Chudnovsky heads up Messenger at Facebook. As Messenger turns 10 years old, we ask him about its future as it transitions into being more of a layer across all of Facebook's properties, rather than just a standalone app. How does Instagram messaging and WhatsApp fit into this world? What about the metaverse? And can everything you do on Messenger be encrypted without unleashing other problems? This edition of the podcast is supported by GoodHelp.co. If you want to learn how social...

Carole Cadwalladr and Professor David Carroll are both well known voices against what they see as Facebook’s wrongdoing. They were two founding members of a group called The Real Facebook Oversight Board, launched just three weeks before Facebook’s official Oversight Board started work last year. Since then they’ve used the media to get their message out about everything from Facebook’s handling of the US election to the problem of vaccine misinformation on the company’s platforms. Outside...

What happens when you cross a professional news report on a ship stuck in the Suez Canal with a sea shanty? The answer is one of BBC visual journalist Sophia Smith Galer’s biggest hits on TikTok. Sophia joins us to talk about a new generation of journalists who emphasise their own personality and identity, and she gives us insights into her social media toolkit, what it's like to cover sensitive topics like religion on social platforms, and why we should all try to be less negative and...

This week we chat with Shimona Mehta, Shopify's managing director for the EMEA region. We discuss how social platforms are increasingly adopting shopping features, how platforms like Shopify power them, and what this all means for the future of how we all buy things. This season, our interviews are recorded live on Twitter Spaces, look out for details of future live shows on Twitter accounts, below: Follow Matt and Martin on Twitter: @MattNavarra and @MartinSFP Join the Social Media...

Geekout with Matt Navarra is back! This week we chat with Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp. We discuss WhatsApp's battle to save end-to-end encryption from governments around the world, the growth of messaging as a business tool, and ask lots of geeky questions about WhatsApp's features and plans. This season, our interviews are recorded live on Twitter Spaces. The next live interview will be with Shimona Mehta, Shopify's managing director for EMEA. If you want to listen live at 11.30am on...

Geekout with Matt Navarra is back, and this time... we’re doing it live. Yes, we’re returning to grill more well-known personalities? from the world of social media. This time the special guests we’ve got lined up include senior figures from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, the BBC, and more. And we’ll be streaming live on Twitter Spaces, so you can tune in as the interviews happen. Don't worry if you miss the live broadcast, we'll be right here in your favourite podcast...

In the first of a series of special episodes looking at the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, we look at how the world of digital media and the big social platforms have been affected. We’re joined by Sara Fischer, media reporter at Axios, and John Saroff, CEO of Chartbeat, to explore whether there’s redemption in the air for Facebook, how publishers are innovating during the crisis, whether a media bloodbath is on the horizon, and much more. Subscribe to Sara’s weekly Axios Media Trends...

Ed Couchman is general manager for Snap in the UK, overseeing the business growth of the company there.. Ed joins Matt Navarra and Martin SFP Bryant to talk how Snapchat is evolving, the features people don’t necessarily make the most of, how marketers can make more of the platform, how Snap’s Spectacles might evolve in the future, and more. Meanwhile, Matt and Martin talk over the week’s news, share the latest tests and tools you need to know about, and they ponder the peculiarities of...

James Whatley has been a social media geek so long he practically invented the term. These days he's a strategy partner at Digitas, where he helps brands make the most of digital platforms. James joins Matt Navarra and Martin SFP Bryant to talk about how social media has evolved over the past 15 years, how brands use it well, whether TikTok is a flash in the pan, Facebook’s PR slip-ups, why it’s so hard to respect modern political marketing online, and more, as we kick back for a less...

Ask staff at many of the world’s leading newsrooms what software they rely on the most and Chartbeat will be near the top of the list. John Saroff is CEO of Chartbeat, which means he has plenty of insights into the way online publishers — and their audiences —are evolving. John joins Matt Navarra and Martin SFP Bryant to talk about the changing habits of online publishers, the best ways to use social media to drive traffic and engagement to online brands, tips for smaller bloggers and...

Vix Meldrew is a content creator and the founder of Grow & Glow, a community for creators who want to build sustainable storytelling businesses. Vix talks to Matt Navarra and Martin SFP Bryant about how the influencer industry is evolving from simple paid endorsements to more involved forms of storytelling. She discusses making the leap from school teacher to full-time online creator, the challenges of what many people consider a glamorous life, and how she helps others to develop the kind...

Vishal Shah is Instagram’s head of product, and he joins us to explain how he’s thinking about the world’s most popular visual sharing app as a new year begins. Vishal talks to Matt Navarra and Martin SFP Bryant about how Instagram decides what to add to — and take away from — the app, how messaging app Threads is developing, why DMs are coming to the web now after so long, an insider’s view on the end of like counts, changes to IGTV, and much more. He answers a bunch of listener’s...

Taylor Lorenz of The New York Times has carved out a niche for herself as the journalist who explains youth culture online to the rest of us. Whether it’s Google Docs as a social network or party invites via Instagram, she understands the trends many of us would never hear of without her stories. Taylor joins Matt Navarra and Martin SFP Bryant to discuss the rise of TikTok, the future of influencers, and why it’s better not to make predictions about the future. Oh, and Martin and Taylor...

Chris Messina is the inventor of the hashtag, but he’s been asked about that far too many times for us to bring it up much here. Good thing that he’s a deep thinker about products, platforms, and social engagement, and has lots to say about topics we love on this podcast. Chris joins Matt Navarra and Martin SFP Bryant to discuss whether social media is at an inflexion point, and where it goes next. We also go in deep on Instagram’s motivations behind launching the rather threadbare new app...

Colleen Stauffer is Pinterest's Director of Global Business Marketing. She joins Matt Navarra and Martin SFP Bryant to discuss this often misunderstood platform, how it can help digital marketers and social media managers, and she shares her views on the future of digital marketing. We dig into the increasingly visual way we all communicate, what social media platforms can learn from Pinterest when it comes to tackling misinformation, how AR could fit into Pinterest's future, and how...

Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth is Facebook's VP responsible for VR and AR. He joins Matt Navarra and Martin 'SFP' Bryant moments after stepping off the stage at Oculus Connect 6, Facebook's latest VR developer conference. He talks us through some of the biggest news from the event and we explore how important virtual worlds could become to our lives in the future. Is Facebook Horizon a second chance for Second Life? How will Oculus Business bring VR to the office? Can Facebook convince the public to...

Damian Collins has social media regulation in his sights, and as chair of UK Parliament's DCMS select committee, he's got strong opinions on how to whip the tech companies into shape. Here he joins Matt Navarra and Martin SFP Bryant to explain why tech companies seem to particularly fear scrutiny from UK politicians, whether we need international rules to govern big tech, what he thinks about Netflix's The Great Hack (in which he appeared)... and just what is Mark Zuckerberg's deal,...

CNN media reporter Kerry Flynn joins Matt Navarra and Martin SFP Bryant to discuss the future of social media. Is there room for new platforms to break through? Is Facebook doomed to be associated with data misuse forever? What will tech look like in 10 years time? And is TikTok just a fad? We also get nostalgic over FriendFeed and Yo, and find out who Kerry would rather have over for dinner: Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, or Evan Spiegel. And we talk over the week’s news and share the...

Twitter’s Director, Product Management, Sara Haider chats to hosts Matt Navarra and Martin SFP Bryant. We find out the latest on the much-requested edit button; the state of play with Twitter’s verification program; how product design can aid positive mental health; Martin pitches Sara his idea for a standalone DMs app, and Matt tries his hardest to uncover Twitter’s Konami code (they must have one, right?). Matt and Martin also talk over the week’s news and share the latest tests and tools...