Jay Schwedelson: We are back for What's Up This Week from the Do This Not That podcast, and there's so much new stuff going on that, um, I'm traveling this week, and I'm like, "Oh, no, my audio's gonna be terrible." Uh, but I'm like, "I don't care. I gotta release this episode because there's so much new stuff going on I want to share with everybody."

Jay Schwedelson: So we'll get into some email stuff and some Reddit stuff, but first, LinkedIn. LinkedIn, just this week, has released a new set of analytics available to everybody. Doesn't matter if you're a premium user or not. If you don't see it yet, it should be in your, uh, analytics by the end of the week or maybe next week, but a lot of people are already seeing it.

Jay Schwedelson: And what it is, is on any post now, you're gonna be able to see, when you do a post, how many people are seeing it that are in-network, that are your current followers or connections, and then how many people it reaches that are out of network. And the reason this matters massively is that the name of the game is how many new people can you get your content exposed to, right?

Jay Schwedelson: How many new people can see what it is you're putting out there? And you'll be able to see the content types that are driving more people out of network to see your stuff. And so if you wanna check it out, all you gotta do is go to your analytics dashboard in LinkedIn, right? And then you could change the date range on it to look at your posts, let's say from only the last seven days or ninety days or whatever.

Jay Schwedelson: And then you can go into each post, and when you go into each post, under Discovery, you're gonna be able to see how many people in-network and how many people out of network are actually seeing your stuff. And I'm telling you, this is a game changer in terms of understanding what content to put out and when.

Jay Schwedelson: So I love that. So other new stuff that is, uh, going on is let's talk about what is going on with email. So this is actually a big deal. So double opt-in or confirmed opt-in is totally dying. What do I mean by that? So you know you sign up for a newsletter or any list, and then you would get that email saying, "Hey, you just signed up, but to confirm that you really wanna be on the list, you have to click this link."

Jay Schwedelson: And then you click the link, you get on the list. That's considered confirmed opt-in, or some people call it up- double opt-in because you have to take that action in order to do it. Well, that used to be a tactic a lot of, uh, brands did and newsletters did and all business-business, consumer, whatever. But that tactic, the usage of that tac- tactic has dropped over 45 year over year according to our Worldata Research group.

Jay Schwedelson: And the reason it's dropped so much is twofold. Number one, it's annoying. When you sign up for something, and then you get that confirmed opt-in link, the company doesn't know what to do with the people that don't click on the confirmation of the opt-in. And usually, about 30-40 of the people that sign up for something, they don't click that link.

Jay Schwedelson: So now you have people that signed up for something But didn't confirm, and they're living in this middle world and, and nobody knows what to do. And it, it's a bad user experience because the person signed up for the thing and now they can't get the thing. And then, oh, people always think, oh, but it's a good thing to do because it cuts down on, you know, uh, remove requests and spam complaints.

Jay Schwedelson: The opposite is true. Lists that are built with double opt-in or confirmed opt-in actually have higher spam complaint ratios than regular lists. And the reason being is the people that do normally confirm their opt-in are very like cr-- you know, wild about making sure that they're only on the list they wanna be on and not over-sent to, so they're more actually sensitive to the email frequency.

Jay Schwedelson: So you get no benefit by doing this double opt-in or confirmed opt-in, and that's why the tactic has dropped by 45 So if you're thinking that you should be doing confirmed opt-in or double opt-in, really, uh, you shouldn't, because it's dying and it's half dead already. Some of the other really interesting things that are going on this week is Reddit.

Jay Schwedelson: Reddit just this week released video replies. And you don't think Reddit's important, but they have well over a billion monthly active users. That's where everybody's going to find new products, new services, consumer stuff, business stuff, new nonprofits to get involved with. And they've just launched video replies, meaning when someone puts out a post on there, you don't just write like a, a comment, you don't just put a...

Jay Schwedelson: upload an image. You can now reply with a video. This is a big deal. I believe this is gonna come to other platforms as well. So this is kind of huge and different and new, and if you haven't checked that out, you should look at video replies on Reddit What else is going on? I'll tell you. You could do me a solid, and not just me.

Jay Schwedelson: Uh, my book comes out today, and 100% of the net author proceeds are going to the V Foundation for Cancer Research, and that's the only reason I wrote the book. It's called "Stupider People Have Done It." If when you stop listening to this thing, you can go on Amazon, you order that book. It's not about me. I could care less about me.

Jay Schwedelson: I just wanna make the biggest donation possible to the V Foundation, which is an incredible group, to help kick cancer's butt. That's all I care about. Cancer sucks, and we could do something about it. Buy it as a graduation gift. Tell a friend to buy it. Just go on Amazon and grab one today in an audiobook copy, a Kindle copy, a hardcover copy.

Jay Schwedelson: It makes a difference. We did go to number one, uh, out of all marketing books as a bestseller, a pre-order bestseller, and I'm just excited to be able to make an impact, and I need your help. So please, when you're done listening to this, go on Amazon, look for "Stupider People Have Done It," and you'd be doing a really great thing to help people all around the planet dealing with horrible stuff.

Jay Schwedelson: So let's talk about some nonsense. What is going on nonsense-wise? Well, Love Island has taken over the brains of all young people. It's everywhere. The memes are flying. The chaos is flying. It's very hard to keep up with. It's six days a week, an hour, an hour a day. Um, I'm already behind. I'm only on episode two, and everybody just, everybody just hooks up too much, so I don't even know what's going on there.

Jay Schwedelson: Summer House 3 reunion, Summer House reunion part three is out. I have not seen that yet. But the biggest thing this week that I'm very excited for is Disclosure Day. That is the new movie coming out by, uh, Steven Spielberg, and Emily Blunt is in it, and it's all about aliens, and I am very fired up to see this.

Jay Schwedelson: I will be going, and I will tell you what I will be eating. I am on Team Junior Mints all day now. I used to be on Team Sno-Caps, which I've talked about. I'm on Team Junior Mints all day. They're very underrated, okay? Um, I'm on popcorn, and, um, that's really it. I don't understand when you go to a movie theater now.

Jay Schwedelson: It's like, do you want a hot dog, nachos, 75 other things? No. You gotta stick with the tried and true. Um, and me and my wife always get into a thing because she's like, "Why don't you bring the candy?" 'Cause the-- it's like $7 billion at the movie when you buy it. And I should do that because it is a rip-off. But for some reason, it takes away from my movie experience, which makes me an idiot.

Jay Schwedelson: Um, so that's what I'm very into. I appreciate you. Please go grab this book. Let's make a difference. Let's kick cancer's butt and, uh, appreciate you.