Unvarnished: Reviewing Your Coworkers’ Personal Brand
There’s a new site called Unvarnished that is sure to ruffle feathers once it gets out of beta.
From the site:
What is Unvarnished?
Unvarnished is an online resource for building, managing, and researching professional reputation, using community-contributed, professional reviews.
Unvarnished reviews help you get the inside scoop on other business professionals, providing candid assessments of coworkers, potential hires, business partners, and more.
The first sentence is a sterile “sure whatever” description. The second one, now there’s the rub. We’ve been reviewing products on Amazon, movies on Netflix and restaurants on Yelp for years. But reviewing people as if they’re a video game? Seems a little odd at first.
Unvarnished is a review site for people.
When I tell you that Unvarnished allows users to submit reviews anonymously, I’m willing to bet your first reaction is to wince. That was my reaction as well, but I’ve had some time to think about it and I have to say that I’ve come around.
At least I think I have.
I heard about Unvarnished just a week or so after reading “You’ve Been Yelped” in Inc. Magazine’s February issue. The article is about Yelp, it’s frightening ability to make or break a business, and owners’ differing approaches to dealing with that reality.
For example, one salon owner offers exclusive deals on her Yelp page to attract new customers. If a new client schedules an appointment and mentions the site, she makes sure to cut their hair personally. Then there’s the owner who tracked down a negative reviewer and ended up getting booked for battery. Not surprisingly, she describes the site as “evil”.
Love it or Leave it?
While I was reading the article, it seemed clear to me that being angry that the thing exists in the first place and dismissing negative reviews outright instead of using the feedback to improve your offering was just pointless. Obviously, the best strategy is to engage with the site’s users and proactively leverage the community to grow your business because it’s not going to just go away.
But. Easy for me to say. My name’s not on the door or the lease. I’m not the guy struggling to keep the lights to my pizza joint on.
Little did I know that a group of geeks in Silicon Valley were working on something that’ll give me a chance to put my money where my mouth is. And, it may very well force the rest of you to do the same, whether you want to or not.
Make It Work
That’s not just good advice from Tim Gunn on how to wow Michael Kors, it’s going to have to be our default position if Unvarnished takes off.
Inc.’s advice to handling online criticism is to Register, Breathe and Be Gracious. Good advice for owners and applicable for individuals.
If the site takes the idea of “personal branding” to an entirely new level, I’ll be looking to the practices of businesses who have grown thanks to Yelp, not commiserating with those who despise it.
At least I hope so.
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