Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson

What’s Up THIS WEEK! Instagram + LinkedIn NEW Engagement Must Do’s! + Love Story on HULU | Ep. 465

9 min
Feb 24, 2026about 2 months ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

Jay Schwedelson breaks down this week's marketing trends, highlighting LinkedIn document posts as the top-performing content format with 278% more engagement than video, Instagram's algorithm favoring early engagement, and Burger King's CEO personally handling customer calls. The episode also covers retail trends and entertainment recommendations.

Insights
  • LinkedIn document posts (PDF carousels) dramatically outperform other content formats by 278-596%, making them essential for B2B marketers seeking engagement
  • Instagram and story algorithms reward early engagement—getting 5 interactions in the first hour doubles content circulation, suggesting coordinated team engagement strategies
  • Executive accessibility and direct customer interaction build brand trust and provide valuable market insights, as demonstrated by Burger King's CEO campaign
  • Retail concentration is extreme: 72% of U.S. consumers shop groceries at Walmart monthly, indicating massive market consolidation
  • Social media algorithms now require strategic, coordinated engagement tactics rather than organic reach alone
Trends
Document posts becoming dominant LinkedIn content format with 5-6x engagement multiplierFirst-hour engagement as critical algorithmic signal on Instagram stories and reelsExecutive-led customer engagement campaigns as brand differentiation strategyCoordinated team engagement as necessary tactic for company social media performanceExtreme retail market concentration around major chains like WalmartPDF carousel content replacing traditional text and image posts on professional networksDirect leadership-customer interaction as trust-building marketing tactic
Companies
LinkedIn
Document posts identified as highest-performing content format with 278% more engagement than video posts
Instagram
New engagement data shows 100% circulation increase for stories/reels with 5+ interactions in first hour
Burger King
CEO Tom Curtis personally handling customer calls for 4+ hours daily as part of 'Build the Whopper Your Way' campaign
Walmart
72% of U.S. consumers shop for groceries there monthly, demonstrating extreme retail market concentration
Dollar General
Second-place grocery retailer at 29% of U.S. consumer shopping frequency, per Dunhumbie's Consumer Trends Tracker
Aldi
Third-place grocery retailer at 28% of U.S. consumer shopping frequency
Hulu
Streaming platform hosting 'Love Story' miniseries about JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bissett
People
Jay Schwedelson
Host of Do This, Not That podcast sharing marketing tips and industry trends analysis
Tom Curtis
President of Burger King leading customer engagement campaign with direct phone/text/voicemail interaction
Quotes
"When you post a document on LinkedIn, according to Data Slayer, it is a 278% more engagement than video posts on LinkedIn, 596% more engagement than text-only posts, and over 300% more engagement than single image posts."
Jay SchwedelsonEarly in episode
"If you can get just five people to do this every time your company posts on instagram it radically will change the amount of circulation that your posts are seeing"
Jay SchwedelsonInstagram section
"The more that leadership can be in contact for real with customers and prospects, the more they're going to understand what people really want from them."
Jay SchwedelsonBurger King discussion
"72% of U.S. consumers shopped for groceries at Walmart. That is wild."
Jay SchwedelsonRetail statistics section
Full Transcript
Welcome to Do This, Not That, the podcast for marketers. We share quick tips, things you can do right now, and then we add a little bit of chaos at the end of every episode. We also keep it short, like this intro. Let's check it out. We are back for What's Up This Week from the Do This, Not That podcast. This is our short episode to break down what's going on this week in business, in marketing, in life. We still have other episodes later in the week, so let's jump into it. What is going on this week? Well, some new stuff out about LinkedIn engagement. There is a content format on LinkedIn that's crushing it that I think people are sleeping on. And this is some new data from Data Slayer, but I'm seeing this too. And everything that I'm posting, I'm seeing the exact same thing happening, which is the number one piece of content right now on LinkedIn is document posts. So those document posts are those carousels that you see that you can kind of swipe through that have like slides on them. And according to Data Slayer, and I'm gonna tell you exactly how to do them because I don't think most people know how to do document posts because it's not that simple. When you post a document on LinkedIn, as opposed to just a text-based post or a post with just an image, when you post a document post, okay, according to Data Slayer, this new data that just came out, it is a 278% more engagement than video posts on LinkedIn, 596% more engagement than text-only posts, and over 300% more engagement than single image posts. So I do this all the time. I'll post something like, you know, here are five new subject line tips and I'll do these slides that you could slide through. Now, if you wanna do it, people don't exactly know how to post a PDF because that's what you're really posting. You're posting a PDF that has a bunch of different pages on it. But you can't just go and post a PDF on LinkedIn unless you do this one thing. So you go to where it says, start a post. You click on start a post. And then the bottom, you're going to see icons. And then there's a plus sign next to those icons. And then the second to last icon actually is it looks like a little piece of paper. It's something that says document. And that is what you click on and you upload your PDF of your carousel there That is the only way to post that PDF on LinkedIn And when you do it is crushing it in terms of performance I'm seeing on everything that I'm doing as well. So I would be checking that out. What about the other platforms? Instagram, there's some new data this week from World Data Research, which is kind of interesting, which if you want to get more reach on the stories that you're putting on your company pages or your personal pages, or you want to get more reach from your reels that you are putting out there, okay, there's kind of one thingamabob that's doing really, really well. In the first hour of your story going live or your reel going live, okay, if you can get at least five people in that first hour to heart it, to like it, or to share it, to DM it to somebody, it actually will increase the circulation on those stories and on those reels by about 100% if you can get five people. So what you really want to think about doing is having a group. I know this is a little cheesy, whatever, but get over it. Have a group of about 15 to 20 people that when you post, you can also DM it to them as well, but that they are going to be interacting with your stuff. You're interacting with their stuff, especially if you have a company. If you a company that has employees you really want to say to your your your team members listen uh make sure that you are starring our content when the company posts and when the company posts we really need you to like our story we really need you to dm it to somebody else on the team and if you can get just five people to do this every time your company posts on instagram it radically will change the amount of circulation that your posts are seeing so yeah it's not something that you know i'm proud to say that you should do but hey this is how the engagement is working right now so you want to lean into that what else is going on i saw this from burger king and i thought this was i don't know kind of wild and great so burger king the president of burking tom curtis uh this week starting right now is inviting customers for a two week period to contact him by phone text or voicemail because they launched this whole campaign to build the whopper your way And he is personally taking the calls for over four hours a day to interact with customers and hear them or whatever. And the reason I think this is great is that I think brands should do this period. The more that leadership can be in contact for real with customers and prospects, the more they're going to understand what people really want from them. And while it may seem outrageous for a company at Burger King size to do this, it also tells humanity that, hey, Burger King cares. So if you're a smaller brand, do this. I want to do this. This is awesome. I saw this stat about Walmart. This has nothing to do with anything that blew my mind. This came out this week. Do you realize what percentage of people do you think shop for groceries, okay, on a monthly basis at Walmart. What percentage? This just came out from data from Dunhumbie's Consumer Trends Tracker that U.S. consumers, okay, this past month, 72% of U.S. consumers shopped for groceries at Walmart. That is wild. The one that came in second was Dollar General at 29% and then Aldi at 28%, 72%. Wow. All right, let's get into ridiculous nonsense that's out there. So I saw this and I was like, what is going on? So Rose Byrne, Rose Byrne is an actress, okay? She just won the Golden Globe for If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You. And by the way, that's the worst movie that's ever been made. Like, it's not even close. But I'm not here to tell you not to watch. If I had legs, I'd kill you. But don't watch it because it was terrible. But Rose Byrne, so she won the Golden Globe. And now her significant other is this dude, Bobby Cannavale, who I always think I'm saying his name wrong, but whatever. He's a big actor too. He's been in a bunch of stuff, whatever. But I just read, do you know why he wasn't there when Rose Byrne was winning the Golden Globe? Because he was at a I not making this up a reptile expo in New Jersey where they sell weird reptiles that you could get as pets And his kids wanted a bearded dragon of some kind Him and Rose Byrne kids wanted a bearded dragon. So he went to the reptile expo instead of being there when she won the Golden Globe. Now, does that mean you're a great parent because you're more focused on your kid getting a weird dragon. I don't know. I don't know what signal that says. I don't know how I feel about this. And more importantly, who wants a dragon? Who wants a beard? Who wants anything in their home? Enough with stuff in their home. I don't know. The other thing I'm watching is Love Story, which is a little sad. It's the JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bissett show. It's like this sort of drama based on real stuff about JFK's Jr. relationship with Carolyn Bissett before they passed away in that in that plane crash it's sad because they passed away but i will say it is super well done uh it's it's a great watch it's on hulu i i just feel bad i feel bad i'm recommending it because it's really good and it's and it's a i'm not fully caught up yet but i do feel sad about the whole thing that whole thing really bums me out um anyway what doesn't bum me out is you being here. Appreciate you. Hey, leave this thing a review. It helps us circulate the show. That's the algorithm in podcast land and go to jschwedelson.com so we can partner and do stuff. Later. Wait, the party is not over. Go to jschwedelson.com because I want to do stuff with you. I want to partner with you. When you click on the button partner with Jay, you let me know what you got going on. Work with my agency, work with me directly, get access to all of my free resources at jschwedelson.com. And I got a book coming out this April. It's called Stupider People Have Done It. And all of the net proceeds are going to the V Foundation for Cancer Research. Go on Amazon, buy Stupider People Have Done It. That way you can help kick cancer's butt with me. And if this podcast wasn't the worst podcast you've ever listened to, it might've been, leave it a review, follow the show. You are awesome. Go out there and crush it. you