But in all cases, authenticity is key, and the consensus is that long-term relationships are crucial.

You should have listened to little ol' dangerousmeta!. If you create a second, false persona ... your life will be sheer hell. Authenticity is your best strategy, long term. As I said in my '12 years of Blogging' piece back in 2011 (dog years ago):

"What are we, but a complex beautiful messy amalgam of wishes, hopes, wants, desires, dreams, psychoses, fears ... all these things and more? What makes you unique? What makes you different? Strut. Wax eloquent. Moan and groan, if necessary. People love Eeyore, A.A. Milne’s chronically depressed donkey. Surely they’ll at least like you."

I should turn that post into a book. What do you think? [Except for the "Gripes" part. I was pissed at Twitter at the time. A lot of pressure to dump the blog and become a Twitter maven back then. I just couldn't do it.]

Link via Ann Street Studio on Instagram.