What is an online persona and what motivates people to have one? What is a cool online persona? Do you get tons of friend requests on Facebook? Do you get more followers then you can handle on Twitter?

Are you an influencer who is liked and retweeted? Are people trying to use you as a reference or business resource all the time? Do you get real responses by people who value your opinion and find your posts and commentary poetic and inspiring? Are you admired and respected enough for people to want to know you in the real world?

Regardless of your situation or whether or not it matches any of what has been described above, a cool persona online is a subjective concept. It depends on what matters to you. Do you want people to perceive you in a way that you are not? Or do you want people to see you as you are with all of your flaws but with the confidence to embrace it and not run from it?

There are a lot of incentives to look a certain way. Maybe you want your family to think you are successful when you are not where you feel they want you to be? Maybe your life does not equate to what your expectations and goals are? Perhaps you want prospective employers to think you are an outstanding person as well as a highly qualified candidate?

This is not an easy question to answer. Most people want to be liked. They want to fit in. However you choose to showcase yourself in an online connected world, it is probably for the best that what you say and do is something you can be confident about. Our lives are not always perfect and neither are our online selves. Maybe it would be better to concentrate some of this energy and anxiety on achieving real goals and making real connections that will sustain an enrich you.