Monday, April 12, 2010

Unvarnished: Yelp for individuals

You, as a person, are up for review on the new Unvarnished website. Unvarnished gives an opportunity for anyone to post their “review” of you as a person. Unvarnished walks the fine line of possibly being useful, and possibly being a headache. In the end, we can only hope that Unvarnished doesn’t become a reason for banks to deny you the /”>best personal loan rates.

Using Unvarnished as reputation management

Individuals are asked to post “unvarnished” reviews of one another. The claim of Unvarnished is that it will help you “manage your career growth”. Any user can create a profile or post their review. User’s identities are verified using Facebook profiles. The Facebook link also means that Unvarnished could be much easier to cheat than a payday loan company – because a “verified” Facebook profile is just about anything but.

Unvarnished isn’t without problems

The problem that Unvarnished presents is much the same as Yelp and RipOffReport.com. Review websites can provide valuable services. At the exact same time, there are two sides to every review. Unvarnished claims to have a “community” system that will help keep bad reviews in check. Unfortunately, unhappy people are much more likely to speak out than unhappy people. This means that Unvarnished could present an unvarnished – if very skewed – view of you.

Should I get an Unvarnished account?

So, yes, Unvarnished review could possibly be very skewed. Seeing bad reviews on Unvarnished could be difficult. Getting an Unvarnished account would nevertheless be a good move for most professionals. If nothing else, knowing what others are saying about you is important – especially if it is negative. An Unvarnished account will allow you to see and reply to feedback others have. Keeping an eye on your online reputation is important.



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