Clint Eastwood is about as real as it gets. And a recent post by a tweep of mine Zachary Adam Cohen got me to thinking about cutting all the BS that social media is filled with. Z posts about how we wants to start burning his social media bridges. I get it too. Seth Godin started preaching this about a year ago or so when he wrote "Tribes". Tribes argues that a tighter social circle meant more meaningful engagement. Simply because there would be less noise. Makes sense. I liken this to heading to a local pub with 3 or 4 good friends, posting up at a table or barstool and really talking - I mean really talking, not just the usual "so how is work going?" crap. The opposite would be heading to a downtown nightclub with a big group of people, standing around, staring at eachother, clutching your drink to your chest and just looking around - trying to seem interesting so that someone will come talk to you.

The Pub

The pub is for people who really don't give a damn about posturing or looking good. People come to a pub to interact, have fun, talk with friends, enjoy a band, pay a fair price for a drink and have an overall good time. People are generally a little bit more approachable and loose and therefore more likely to get to know one another. (I just started thinking about those Miller High Life commercials where the Miller dude walks into a trendy club, breaks through the velvet rope and takes all the High Life away). Stay with me...I tend to ramble. The thought I am trying to convey is that without all the posturing, without all the self-absorbed posing we become more approachable. By being more approachable we meet more people, make more friends and in general, get more value from the experience.

The Nightclub

On the flip-side you have the nightclub. The place where all the supposed "cool-kids" hang out. This is more than likely some trendy spot downtown or in a trendy burrough or neighborhood near you. Probably started by some kid who is like 28, his parents had money, and somewhere along the way he realized that his only real tangible skill in life is looking cool, aka posturing. These places get hot and then fizzle quick. They change names often and eventually close-up shop. Typically, these places are filled with young 20-somethings who need to feel cool, so they go where the cool kids go. They want to be a part of the scene so they put on their best designer outfit, dowse themselves in cologne or perfume and order drinks they cannot afford - all to look cool. The hilarious thing is that most of them either live at home still or rent a lame efficiency apartment and drive a 10 year Honda Civic (not hating on used cars by the way, I drive a used Jeep Cherokee Sport and love it). But the posturing only goes so far, because by the time you've landed the girl or guy you were trying to attract in this scenario and then reveal your true self; the paycheck-to-paycheck, used car driving failure to launch being that you truly are, your "catch" is no longer interested. Sounds like a huge waste of time to me.

Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood never posed - not that I can tell. Did I live with the guy, even know him, nope. But I'm willing to bet that what you got what you saw with Clint. Clint was transparent, direct and always able to convey his message with honestly. This meant that Clint never really fed anyone any +!@#$. Eastwood understood that +!@#$ was a waste of his time. Not only that, it's tough to keep up with your own +!@#$; ever lose track of what story you told who and then get caught up in your own +!@#$ lies? I think Clint would approach social media with a directness that we could all learn from. Probably would not be on Twitter all day or updating his foursquare telling people that he is at his yoga class on 9th or eating a hangar steak at some posh restaurant just to position himself as cool. Instead, he'd just update with a tweet that read "Just blew away a bad guy for trying to rob a bank". Translation = I did something, created a result. And I'll bet that if you read through his timeline most of the other updates would be fairly consistent with his true personality too. None of this fluffy crap we see today - simply results, usable facts.

Personally, I'm going to start really slowing down my own social media activity. Gonna make my timeline read more like a stat sheet. Not in the vein of promoting all the results I achieve, more like this "Achieved XYZ today and here is how I did it." I think that a service like Twitter would really become more relevant if users did this. If you want to update the world with your weekend plans do it somewhere else. Half of the people following you could really care less. If you want to add value to social media then tell me how you did something, how I can do it too and what I can expect when I do.

Going back to the post that Zach wrote, I think there are different uses for different social media platforms. For staying in touch with friends and posting my weekend plans I use facebook. I keep my profile private and only update every once in awhile. This makes sure that I have tight circle of friends that actually care about what I post and vice-versa.

For Twitter, I'll be posting success, breakthroughs and ideas that will help those I want to reach. Gone are the days of "I just signed a new client - yea for me!" or "I just had the best slice of pizza in the world!" Which brings me to my next point, and final one...

FourSqaure

This is where you should be spending your time telling people about the pizza you love so much. Why? Beause other FourSquare users will actually give a damn - that is why they are on there, to get pinged when someone discovers something like that. And please stop linking your FourSquare to Twitter...your not adding any value telling me that you are at 10th and madison getting a latte and that you just unlocked the "Adventurer Badge" - thats just about as annoying as me getting a Farmville update on my Facebook stream...if I cared, I'd friend you on Foursquare.

Rant over.

Enjoy a clip of Clint.

Comment away.