ITworld Looks at Coworkers.com & Online Reputation Management

Dan Tynan was kind enough to speak with us recently regarding his series of articles that explore Online Reputation. Dan focused on some key differences between Coworkers.com and a new site called Unvarnished. Here are highlights from his piece:

Online reputation does matter
(no matter what Michael Arrington says)

"...My point: Of course your online reputation matters. That reputation is formed by a number of things, including what you say in your blog(s) or in comments, what you say and do on social networks and media sharing sites, and what other people say about you on sites like Unvarnished..."

"Jon Clay agrees with me. He’s CEO of Coworkers.com, a site that preceded Unvarnished and has a lot in common with it, but also differs in significant ways. Like Unvarnished, it exists to promote your professional reputation, and people may post anonymous reviews of you. Unlike Unvarnished, you control what others can and can’t see on your profile. So if somebody posts a nasty review of your work performance, you can choose to delete it, keep it but make it private, or show it to the world.

Why, I asked Clay, would anyone ever elect to show a negative review to anyone else? Because, he responded, it could be an excellent way to show how you’ve improved in a particular area over time. Last year, you may have gotten negative marks for your productivity, competence, or interpersonal skills; now your reviews are significantly better.

Another thing I like about Coworkers.com is nobody else can add you to its database. It’s up to you to add yourself. That keeps you from suddenly discovering, years down the road, that somebody has been spreading nasty lies about you on the site. (The downside? It tends to limit the number of people who actually participate -- searching the site for common names like "Smith" or "Jones" produces very few hits.) [*please see our note below]

In other words, it helps you manage your reputation as you see fit, which is how most of us try to operate in the real world. And that’s something we all will need to pay increasingly more attention to – no matter what Michael Arrington tells you."

We appreciate Dan's insight. Regarding profile search and user participation on Coworkers.com: While it's true that searching for people with Public profiles may yield limited results as we continue to grow, it is important to note that there is still a lot of private participation happening among users who do not make their profiles public.

We find that our private users are reaching out to their colleagues, collecting feedback, getting comfortable with using our site as a catalyst for self improvement. These users also share their positive and negative feedback privately and on a limited basis with mentors, coaches, supervisors, prospects etc. We think it's this level of control, on the incoming and outgoing stream, that distinguishes mere "Public ratings" from self-directed Professional Reputation & Career Management.

• Read the full article on ITworld.com

On a related note, we were pleased to recently get some coverage in the New Jersey Business News website NJ.com in their article titled Social networking has its perks