In this podcast episode of The Kerry Barrett Show, Stetson Patton, the founder of Socially Stetson and a social media expert, joins Kerry to discuss all things social media. They discuss Stetson’s expertise in social media consulting, strategy, and management. The conversation revolves around the power of video content and the importance of being comfortable on camera. Stetson shares her own experiences and background in musical theater and public speaking, emphasizing the need to overcome the fear and comparison trap mindset that often holds people back from embracing video as a communication tool.
Transcript
Kerry Barret: Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Kerry Barrett show. Joining us today is Stetson Patton. She is the founder of Socially Stetson and she’s the master of all things social media, whether it is consulting, strategy management, speaking on it, or the whole nine yards. She manages my Instagram account and some other things as well.
Steson I’m looking forward to this conversation and I know that the audience will get a ton out of it. So thank you for being here.
Stetson: Yes. Thank you so much for having me. I know we are new to working on your account, but we’ve had so much fun. Looking at all of your past content from your fun life. So you’re a fun client to work for just because you have so much already in video content. It makes it nice.
Kerry Barret: I’m glad you mentioned that yes, I do have a lot and people often try and put me into a strategist or like a video marketer. And while I do have experts that come in and teach those things in my program, like I’m a coach, I’m an on-camera coach. I teach people how to deliver well on camera.
And yes, for social, absolutely 100%, but also it’s like long-form videos and maybe you have a media opportunity on broadcast and maybe you wanna use video and sales, or you’re doing live streams or whatever.
So there’s like a whole host of applications that leverage the lens, if you will, for audience growth and for visibility and for opportunity and authority and all of that stuff.
But when people come to me and say I know I should be doing video, but I have done it a few times before and I hate myself. I don’t like what I sound like. I look like crap. I’m awkward. Or I’m too scared to even try.
I walk them through the process. You, on the other hand, like you have no problem showing up on camera. You pump out reels on Instagram and content everywhere else. How did you get to where you are with that comfort level?
Stetson: So I call myself a serial entrepreneur because I’ve owned several businesses. And right when Instagram came out, I at the time owned a brick-and-mortar store. A boutique, a clothing store. And so it’s where I learned a ton of my business skills, the to-do’s, and a ton of what not to do’s.
But that was right when Instagram came out and everybody was, that’s, Kind of when influencer marketing came about because all these beautiful model-looking women were coming and posing and with their aesthetic coffee and their aesthetic clothes and we knew that was a great way to sell our clothes.
But I never felt comfortable posing like that in pictures, even though I knew I was supposed to do it. So when people come to me and they’re like, I know I’m supposed to do it, but I don’t feel comfortable, for me I learned it’s So back in 2010, I was just not posting the aesthetic things. I was stepping outside of the box and just showing my behind-the-scenes, my real life. And posing in clothes and just saying like, I don’t have a pretty aesthetic for this. So I was very fortunate when the video did hit the scene with Reels and really in Stories.
And I think that’s where my audience really got to know me more. Because I immediately was like, great, people will get to know me and who I am. I don’t have to try to be aesthetic and pretty because I felt like once people got to know me, they would like me or at least, or not like me, who knows, but they could make a decision on it.
And so for me, I felt more comfortable on video than I did And I think a lot of that comes from and you and I’ve had this conversation. I did grow up in musical theater and on stage, my dad was a football coach and he used to make me sing the national anthem before football games. And so I did not have a choice of just being thrown into the public eye.
And so I do think a lot of my experience comes from that. And that’s why I tell people don’t have a comparison trap mindset. A lot of people don’t know that I was in musical theater. They have no clue that I used to sing in large stadiums. They don’t know that. All they see is, wow, she looks so comfortable on camera, but they don’t know any of the backgrounds that led me up to that comfort zone.
Kerry Barret: They’re comparing your chapter 20 when, oh, by the way, chapter 1 started way back when you were a toddler.
Stetson: Yes, four years old.
Kerry Barret: Yeah, to their chapter one, which may be unfolding when they’re in their twenties or thirties. And I’m so appreciative of you mentioning that it wasn’t just something that like, hey, I suddenly turned on a camera when I started owning a business.
And all of a sudden I was very comfortable and natural and a real authentic person on camera. There are a handful of people in the world who are natural performers. Now we don’t have to be like Meryl Streep or Daniel Day-Lewis, but that element of being able to just speak and communicate doesn’t come naturally to most people.
And most people do hate it. That’s why there’s such a fear of public speaking. Now you’ve got the on-camera component. And public speaking so I have to speak and then I have to look at myself and see how many people didn’t watch me.
Stetson: It’s awful. It’s awful.
Kerry Barret: It’s like a combination of these two terrible storms. I really do appreciate it, I feel like that helps people understand that it takes a little time, it takes a little practice, but with the right practice and with the right guidance, you can do whatever, whether it’s Reels, or whether it’s YouTube, or a podcast, or a live stream or heck, show up on NBC news if you want to talk about yourself on camera one day in that way.
Let me take that comfort level and the fact that, you’ve had it for a long time and apply your process for showing up on camera and the strategy that you create Reels or that you create Stories like you batch. Not everybody does, but your process is probably different than some of your client’s processes.
Talk to us if you can about your process for batching your system for getting all of this out there.
Stetson: Okay, so I am part of the Socially Stetson business being a social media manager. So I will say that my personal content and strategy are very different from how I do my clients. My clients are way more organized with their social media than I will ever be. And I like to have a dream of having that organization for myself.
I always compare it to cleaning your house. We all can clean our own homes, but it’s going to take me so much longer and it’s not going to be done as well as if I hired a professional cleaner to do it.
For example, I tried like, cleaning and mopping, without a Swiffer. I used a real mop the other day and I
Stetson Audio: And
Stetson: I was like well, how do I wash them I had so many questions and I’m just like, nope. Oh gosh. I was like, this role is not for me.
So for me, I batch sometimes. I, I do feel like I struggle with adult ADHD a lot. And so I get very hyper-focused on things. So, I’ve tried to learn to use that for my good.
So when I get hyper-focused on maybe playing around in Canva and working with some templates, I’m like, okay well, if I’m doing this right now, if this is what I want to do, I’m going to be hyper-focused and create a bunch of content that are just static posts, maybe, and then I’ll go ahead and schedule those out for Monday.
So a system that my team and I have, and I, I really truly tell people this system because it will make your life easier. We try to always have carousel posts or static posts on Mondays and Fridays. The reason being is I wanted to create a culture for my team where they didn’t have to worry about work on Mondays and Fridays. Or like, did this post?
We want to go ahead and have Mondays and Fridays scheduled. One, because Mondays are a great day when you’re catching up on emails. Prepping work for the rest of the week or the rest of the month. And then also Friday is Friday Funday. We want to go out. That’s usually when our team meets together for coffee.
And we have coffee and co-working days where we’re creating content and brainstorm. And we’re talking about the clients and just kind of communicating with each other. So we know that every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are usually video days. Those are the Reels days. Those are the content creation days. Those are the meat and potatoes.
So we want Mondays and Fridays to be light, and Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays to be heavier. For myself though, Carrie, I am a very flyby, The seat type of person. But I am that way because I know I can pump out a Reel in three seconds because of practice and all the things. so, And I love showing up in my stories.
My stories are where I get real personal and I love the community on social media stories I think this is where you really hone in on the friendships and that community that you build.
Kerry Barret: Okay. I’m going to ask you about Stories in a second. I want to put a pin on that and I want to go back to what you talked about in terms of these are our, carousels or still images in the middle of the week is where we do video.
There was a period of time when Instagram was like still posts and whatnot was getting like zero reaches. They just dropped off a cliff. And they were really video-forward. Video is still important, but it’s not as important on Instagram as it used to be, right? That trend has changed a little bit.
Stetson: Yeah, I think Instagram is known as the platform to copy. So they copied Snapchat when stories came out and people thought they were crazy and thought that everybody would stay on Snapchat. They didn’t. Stories really excelled.
Then they copied TikTok with the short form videos and came out with Reels and they, people thought they were funny and thought people would stay on TikTok and they didn’t. People love Instagram Reels.
But the difference between Twitter, which is just a text thread, and Instagram just launched that too. They have Threads now, which are their text threads, but now so did TikTok. I think where TikTok is messing up is I think they should just stay short-form video. I don’t think they need to be like Instagram.
Instagram is that platform that is known to see what works on others, copy it, and come with it. They’ve realized, and what I’ve realized is this is a social media manager is just that people like Instagram for what it is. They still like the pictures. They still like the carousels. Carousels do extremely well and Stories have great conversions.
And so I tell people it’s like baking a cake you know, there’s a ton of ingredients that go into this platform, are you using all of the ingredients? Because Carrie, I will tell you when I go public speak and I meet people and I say, okay, raise your hand if you feel like you’re an expert at Facebook or, you know, Facebook really well, or even Instagram, they raise your hand.
And then I asked them a list of questions. I said, great how many of you own your own group How many of you have a live strategy session? How many of you have guides set up? How many of you are doing this? And I’m naming all of the tools that Facebook has.
And then they’re like, okay, maybe I’m not a Facebook expert. Do you know?
Stetson Audio: expert
Stetson: So I tell people to get really good at one. like, get really good at one, whether that’s YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook. Do you need a presence on all of them? Absolutely.
Yeah, the omnipresence of you wants your client to find you where they are. So you might have a client one of my really good friends that I just met. I say really good friend. We did meet a few months ago.
She found me through my podcast and we became like besties instantly. But she was telling me when I asked her on the podcast, I said so what are you binge-watching right now is a fun thing. I was like, what are you watching? She was like YouTube and I was like, oh, I do not watch YouTube, but that’s her thing. So she’s finding people on YouTube. I find people on Instagram.
Kerry Barret: Yeah.
Stetson: Other people find people on Facebook. So your clients are everywhere and I’m discovering more and more the younger generation is on Facebook and Instagram. I don’t know why we have a misconception that they’re not. I know statistically there are more young people on TikTok.
But they are still trying to get on Facebook to grow their businesses now because they’re in their 20s. They’re becoming entrepreneurs right out of college because why not? And they’re now trying to learn the platform. They don’t know Facebook like we do. I’m the millennial who was in college when Facebook came out, so I know it way more than they do.
Kerry Barret: That makes great sense. And I want to take what you just mentioned and you talked about meeting them where they are. And this may be is let me start with this. Is there a social media funnel, you go from short-form discoverability to a longer form for trust building to a live stream for engagement, and then you have your awareness and your interest in your desire, and then down at the bottom, you’re closing them with, maybe it’s a certain ad with a specific call to action or something. Is there a social media funnel and how do you set that up?
Stetson: I’m so glad you asked this because this is kind of what you and I were talking about the other day, and this is where you grab that notebook, you grab your pen and a sheet of paper and you just sit down and you say, you have to take each customer experience.
So let’s use TikTok. For example, you say, okay, great. I just got a new follower on TikTok or, you know, somebody’s interested in my content on TikTok. What do I want their customer experience to look like? So do I want the next platform to be my email marketing list? Do I want them to go to a YouTube channel? Which I feel is what the majority of TikTok is doing right now.
They are saying for more information on this, go check out my YouTube. So TikTok is a great funnel into YouTube. Instagram right now is a great funnel into the email list or to the conversions because you can promote so much in your stories with the links and webinars and stuff like that. So that’s a great place. And so is Facebook.
So I think it’s understanding where your audience is on each. So I usually tell people TikTok is the best place to find new clients, new faces, and people who are unaware of who you are. And then what does that journey want to look like? Instagram is a really good place to continue to build that like, know, and trust.
For example, I had a conversation with a girl this morning. She did not even know I offered membership or the social trend, but she goes, I’ve received so much valuable information just from following you on Instagram. And that made me feel good. So that felt really good.
And then Facebook is the place where you really nurture that community. Whether it’s through a group, whether it’s through just engagement in general.
So just kind of knowing that and I think this is a fun statistic, you know, on people’s websites, the social icons at the bottom, like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube well, 98% of people click on Instagram first.
Kerry Barret: Interesting.
Stetson: And I know I do, but I think it’s because Instagram is It’s still the only platform that is just a quick visual. People can just look at it in three seconds. It has like pretty much your bio as a business card up top and they can just look to see if are you actively using it. Is it aesthetically pretty? Aesthetics do still matter no matter what people say. To me they do and like you doing anything on it?
I found a page the other day and just went and looked and I was like well, they haven’t posted anything since 2021. So I decided not to follow them even though I liked their content, but I was like, that would be a waste of my time to follow them. They’re not posting.
Kerry Barret: You don’t even they might not even be around anymore for all you know, yeah, with that. It’s like a dead account.
Stetson: I did find their page through a hashtag.
Kerry Barret: Interesting. So now the 2nd part of that question, maybe and this is I think anyway, my question is Instagram specific. How do you use Instagram for funnel creation in and of itself?
And I guess what I’m actually asking when I say that is. And I apologize.
Stetson: No, this is great. It’s an open conversation. I love it.
Kerry Barret: Is it, and I’m making it up. Reels are great for discoverability. Carousel posts are great for learning. Still, images are great for, this sort of engagement or call to action.
Stories are where you go when you want to convert people who are already followers and you’re always posting videos. What type of content is conducive to certain, goals that you have with that particular post or that particular video?
Stetson: Have you ever heard like in real life, somebody needs to be layered six or seven times before they convert that conversion? I guess online it’s 36 to 37 times.
Kerry Barret: Okay.
Stetson: So I think that’s important to know. I heard this in a marketing class one time from follower to conversion on Instagram is usually four to six months, depending on the person.
There are very few people that are like, yep, I’m signing up for that course. You may see an ad or something for a course for two years before you sign on to it, but it’s that repetitiveness.
So here’s the thing again, using all the ingredients, but I tell the people who aren’t posting daily and don’t have a clear message of what you’re talking about.
I’ll use it myself. For example, I can’t just talk about Instagram tips without a strong call to action. If I’m doing those Instagram tips, I better be leading them into my Instagram course. For example, that I have now right now, I’m not promoting the Instagram course, so I’m not doing a ton of Instagram tips.
Right now I’m focusing on the social trend, which is a subscription I have with trending audio. So what I’m doing and what I’m talking about, what I’m posting about is the importance of using trending audio, and why trending audio works. I’m showing analytics of clients’ accounts that I’ve used trending audio.
I am sharing customer results in my Stories on that. So I think it’s not necessarily about what you’re doing. I think it’s about the message that you’re giving. So in every single one of those posts, I’m not saying sign up for my social trend, sign up for the social trend. I’m still giving my audience like, hey, this is why this is important.
And then later I will be blowing up my stories with a series of asking questions and conversions. Conversions I will say do happen in the stories and DMs.
Kerry Barret: Is there a cadence for value? So like posting-wise, I’m posting, I don’t know, five posts that are valuable or inspirational or whatever. And then I’m doing like a pitch, whether it’s an actual hard pitch to a product or whether it’s a, sign up for my newsletter or my podcast or whatever, or is it dependent upon, you have a launch going on. Like, how do you bring all those elements together?
Stetson: So I think it’s a lot of trial and error. Here I’m pulling up a slide that I make because I have taught this. I have what’s called a 13-day selling strategy in my membership. And basically, it is a formula for 13 days that I have found works for me.
I know some other people who can convert really high levels in eight days, but I feel like they’re running ads. So I will say ads help with that conversion.
Let me see if I can find it real quick. 13-day social selling strategy. So it starts with awareness. Like awareness of what you’re doing. That always needs to be the first post.
Let’s say you have a course coming up that you’re about to launch and sell. You need to be promoting that a minimum of two weeks out. And I say this because the average person, if you’re posting every day for two weeks, the average person might only see two to three posts that you post, just on the way that the algorithms run.
So I think people get so frustrated, they’ll promote something for one, maybe three days, and then they’re so sad with the turnout or the conversion, and I’m like well, you didn’t even promote it long enough to give people the awareness and email marketing is a huge strategy with that too.
But it starts with awareness. I always like to do some kind of early bird special or like if you sign up to do this. And then it is more awareness than it’s bringing value. So it is that funnel that pyramid and this on Google, but you can look up a sales funnel and Its awareness and then it gets all the way down to decision-making time and this is important.
You have to tell people like time is running out. You have to put that dead like deadline on it and it’s so important to stick with that deadline. So even if somebody messages you the next day and you say, I am so sorry, you know, they won’t wait again. You put them on a waiting list.
And I don’t care if you just had one person sign up and the second one wants, and it is no. It’s the standards that you’re setting for your launch and your strategy. So I do teach on that in my membership. It’s called the 13-day sales strategy.
I know some people have a three-day sales launch, eight days. For me, it’s that two weeks of really doing that. And I do think this is important to know too. When you’re doing these types of posts, they do not get a lot of user engagement.
Kerry Barret: Yeah. lower, right?
Stetson: Much lower. So conversion posts are going to look not as pretty and glamorous as entertainment posts. That’s why people are like, oh I got all these views on my dumbest Reel. I’m like, yeah, because it was entertaining, but you’re not going to get conversions from it.
You may have even received a lot of followers from it. They’re not going to convert. They followed you for something funny. So the conversion post, although people might not be commenting, sharing, or liking, they’re looking, and it’s important to have that strategy.
Kerry Barret: Got it. It’s all part of the process and you’re right, like you may get a ton of followers, but they’re following you for value and they liked what you said, and they’re not ready for a hard sell yet. They look, but they’re not clicking or sharing or whatever.
It’s interesting you say that, I look at people who have, hundreds of thousands of followers on their Instagram and they’re, posts no matter what they are get massive amounts of engagement, and then I’ll see them run an ad and it’s like crickets in the comments.
I know they’re having success with them because I see their programs or I may join their programs, but you’re right it’s a different metric and I’m glad that you brought that up because that part can be incredibly frustrating and you wonder if you’re doing it, right? I struggle with that. All the time.
Stetson: But here’s what I think it helps, too, is coming up with that strategy, because it does help with burnout. Because, so like right now, I feel like for me, I’m going to constantly promote my social trend right now until I have a big launch for my Instagram, of course, or a big launch for something else.
So I’m just going to be lightly sprinkling that in. So right now I’m not doing a huge launch. I’m just semi-talking about it, and I am just sprinkling in more entertainment, more education, and stuff like that.
But when you do a hard launch, that’s when you get exhausted. Like, that’s when you’re planning, that’s when you’re content creating, that’s when you’re doing it.
And then you can enjoy it later. Like, you can take a three-day break from social media after a big launch, and it doesn’t matter, you know? So, you can take those social media breaks.
And it
Kerry Barret: doesn’t kill you. Consistency is not necessarily posting every day. It’s figuring out what you can do if you’re doing it on your own, for example, and then sticking to it. Yes.
Stetson: I will say Adam Missouri, he’s the head of Instagram, CEO of Instagram. He has said Instagram favors accounts that post a minimum of two times a week. So, that’s what I tell people, if the head of Instagram says, hey, we’re showing you if you’re at least posting two times a week, then I’m not going to listen to myself or anybody else’s strategy. The head of Instagram just said it.
Kerry Barret: Yeah, you don’t have to post four times a day stories or something else entirely. I know that those are, but the preference is to do that.
If you really are interested in growth is quite frequent correct?
Stetson: It is. Stories can be as frequent as you want them to be. And we schedule a lot of stories for some of our clients. So some of our clients pay for like a daily story. And so that’s important just because even if you’re out of town, let’s use your account. For example, if you’re out of town on vacation, you’re still showing up in your Stories at least one time.
You’re at least showing up in that bubble feed. And then hopefully our goal for all of our clients is they don’t worry about their posts as much because they focus on their stories.
Kerry Barret: And stories, and just to be clear, like stories can be used for anyone. It doesn’t have to be a personal brand or an individual. It could be a corporate event.
It’s not as highly produced. Yes, you can do all sorts of things with them if you opt to, but literally, you can also just open up your phone and share something that’s going on. It’s a lot of. Documentation, yes?
Stetson: Yeah. It’s like a vlog. It really is like a vlog, which is honestly the content that we’re seeing do well over on TikTok. So usually a strategy I tell people for your TikTok content, pretend like it’s an Instagram story. Just hop on there and start talking. That’s what people like. And then it really is just that behind-the-scenes look at your life.
Hi Benjamin.
Kerry Barret: Benjamin, make your podcast debut.
Stetson: You’re so cute. You’re so cute. Hahaha.
Kerry Barret: Okay, let Mommy talk. Here’s the phone. Oh.
Stetson: How old are you, Benjamin?
Benjamin: Six.
Stetson: Oh my goodness. I have a nephew who’s seven. I bet y’all would be good friends.
Kerry Barret: All right. Peace out, little man. I don’t know whether to keep this part in or edit it out. Bye. Bye.
Stetson: Oh, I 100% think you should keep it in. Look, that would be great behind the scenes. We’ll use it. Use the clip. It’s like a blooper podcast reel and I think that’s important. It actually works out. It’s real life. It shows people what’s actually going on where we’re not just perfect. It is our authentic self.
I know you, I know that your family does come first. And so that just shows more of the human side. And I think people laugh at me because right now, like my hair and makeup are done. I have my jewelry on a nice outfit, but I show up in my stories all the time, like looking rough. And I think it’s part of from like owning the boutique.
I felt like I had to look perfect all the time. I felt like because I was selling beauty and fashion, I just felt like I had to be on 24 7, which you probably felt in the news industry too.
Kerry Barret: All the time. Yep.
Stetson: And so, to me, it is so freeing to be able to just show up. I have no makeup, or hair done, and I have more women come up to me and say, Oh, I love that you do that.
I wish I could do that. And I’m like, you can.
Kerry Barret: You can.
Stetson: But they don’t feel comfortable doing it. But then, guess what they know about me is do I feel self-conscious? Absolutely. Do I like the way I look without hair and makeup and loungy, not matching pajamas? Absolutely not. Do I want to empower more people that is normal? Yes. So that’s why I do it.
Kerry Barret: I love it. And I’m going to just share a quick story with you as well before I jump into where the future of social is going. I used to record every single video I did. I was in my news anchor clothes and my nice dresses and everything was tailored and I still wear my lashes, but, and I’m like, I’m sitting in my sunroom or like on my porch in like a pretty much a suit.
The two don’t fit. And by the way, most of my audience isn’t watching these videos sitting in a suit either. So why am I showing up in a way that is not meeting my audience where they are, and is not conducive to wherever I’m shooting? I am so appreciative of you mentioning that because I’ve dialed down the way that I show up in terms of my clothing like I’m wearing a t-shirt now, and I was really honestly nervous about that for quite a long time, but I think it makes content more real.
It makes it less difficult to produce and less time-consuming, and people really do, they appreciate that, I think.
Stetson: I actually had a mentor one time tell me not to show up on camera without makeup. She was like, nobody wants to see that. And I was like, how Like, Okay, I’m gonna do it anyway.
Kerry Barret: Yeah. And then he fired her immediately. All right, let’s talk about two, two topics. I want to get to it before we wrap up. One is the future of society. Where’s it going? What are the trends that you’re seeing? And how are people incorporating AI? I guess good and bad.
To produce content with less effort, more of it, et cetera, et cetera. So trends feature AI.
Stetson: I think right now for trends like, where I see the future of social media going, I think you need to become really good at one of two things. If you can become really good at both, that’d be great. But one, get really good at video editing, if you’re not yet, or hire a video editor because the transitions and the cool things and even the things with AI are making videos more engaging.
So either one, but I’m really good at video editing and this is not going to be my path. This is not the path that I’m going down. The one I’m going down is number two. And that’s to become a really good storyteller. Because even the trends on TikTok, as I said, and TikTok is leading the trends on all the other platforms, is to tell stories.
Tell your life, tell your stories, and be authentic. And so, to me, that’s easier than learning all of these AI and video editing tools. Now, granted, I am gonna dabble in that education. It’s my job. But I would rather focus on storytelling.
So I think you have to become great at one or the other. Where AI can be good and bad I think a lot of people don’t realize that we’ve had AI for years. We are just in an AI Boom, a surge where there are now just multiple AI tools. And so I think they’re great.
There are certain AI tools that are completely helping my efficiency with my business. I have not had to let anybody go because of AI. I am teaching them how to use AI to make their jobs more effective.
You know, efficient as well. So then I can take on more clients or take on more work or rest more, to not take on more clients and more work. So I think AI is good that way. Now, I could go down a full rabbit hole of how dangerous social media and AI actually are. It can be really scary and cause a lot of fear, but as a Christian in the Bible, it says, do not fear 365 times.
So one for every day of the year. And that is just what I have to remind myself that God knew AI was coming. Is it dangerous? Yes. Can it be really scary? Yes. But I need to live a life of joy and not a life of fear. And that’s just the path that I’m choosing to go down when it comes to AI and how can I use it for good.
In my podcast. I say I’m your online social light because it is a faith-based podcast and that’s what I’m trying to do is teach people how to use some of these tools for good and not for evil. And I’ll get off my soapbox there, but I think it can be used for good. I think we have a lot of evil people out there who will do it for bad.
And there are certain things that we can be aware of, like turning off precise location on your phone. So if you don’t know this and you have your phones, pick them up now. You can have your location on, but they launched something new recently, even for Instagram where it can do your precise location.
So instead of just saying, hey, I am in. This part of Charlotte, North Carolina, would ping my exact address and hackers know how to find that. And that’s where you just need to know some of the things to look out for.
Kerry Barret: I’m so appreciative of you mentioning that and I also want to share you’re right, there are lots of ways, whether it’s like caption creating or you know figuring out what your hashtags are now where then there is a limitation though and I want to say that AI could get you like part of the way there, but I noticed even as I’m creating, you know landing page content or whatever, it is beginning to get a little bit more generic because it’s compiling from more people and it gets more watered down and more watered down.
I truly believe that really the only way to make an authentic, real connection that you know is, with someone with a heart that’s beating inside of them is with a face and a voice. It’s on a camera, it’s with video and I use AI too, but that real connection with the video, wherever it is, whether it’s on Instagram or it’s on YouTube or you use it in sales videos, that element will never go away.
Stetson: Have you read the book, Platonic?
Kerry Barret: No.
Stetson: I’m looking it up right now. I can’t think of the author’s name. It’s about the science of attachment. So she is an author. I don’t know if this is it. Some won’t say it, but platonic. She studies the brain and psychology and something she said that was super interesting to me was when you meet somebody face to face, toe to toe, and you’re looking them in their eye, there is a certain part of your brain that activates and lights up.
Well, new scientific studies have shown when I’m watching somebody on video, that same part, a small part of that brain still lights up and causes a connection, an immediate connection of trust.
And so for anybody who’s been on social media for a while and showing up in your stories, I sometimes meet people in person and I’m like have I met you in real life before? I don’t know because I feel like I already know you. And it’s really how strong friendships are bonded, but it’s also scientific that people will like and trust you more when they can see you face to face and hear your voice on camera.
Kerry Barret: 100%. I will put a bow on that statement. I’d love to talk to you for longer I don’t have time, but we’ll have to bring you back for another episode if you’re up to it. Before you go, I imagine if I ask you, where should we find you? One of the places is certainly going to be on Instagram. But tell us where people can find you if they’d like to follow you, learn more about you, and see how they might be able to work with you.
And then, is there anywhere you’d like to send them as well? Is there something you’d like them to check out, a resource or something like that, that they should look at too?
Stetson: Absolutely. So you can find me on almost all platforms at Stetson K Patton. That’s just what it is. And if you search socially Stetson, you might be able to find me on Facebook. It’s a little bit harder because I have some old hacked accounts that I will never probably be able to get back into. So Instagram and Tiktok are probably the best places.
Probably the number one thing would be my podcast. Socially Stetson is on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Apple Podcasts. That is where I’m showing up weekly as well to go over social trends and then also to shine a light on the online digital world.
Kerry Barret: You are fantastic, Stetson. Thank you so much.
Stetson: Yes. Thank you for having me. I’ll definitely love to come back.
Kerry Barret: Awesome.
Places to follow up with Stetson:
- Website: sociallystetson.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/stetsonkpatton
- TikTok: tiktok.com/@stetsonkpatton
- Podcast: Apple & Spotify
