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The site is Unvarnished and, according to TechCrunch reporter Evelyn Russi, it’s “Yelp for LinkedIn: Any user can create an online profile for a professional and submit anonymous reviews. You can claim your profile, but unlike LinkedIn, you have to accept every post, warts and all. And once the profile is up there’s no taking it down.” The New York Times ‘ Brad Stone said Unvarnished “creates a public bathroom wall for everyone on the planet — then hands its users a bi…

The RFP French-language public broadcasters association has selected five journalists from Europe and Canada to live in a house in southern France for five days. Their only access to the outside world will be through Twitter and Facebook. The goal: To determine if these media are reliable news sources. Related RobinBrown 30 free tools for online journalists.

Six months after United Airlines began its search, the company has named Edelman its agency of record. According to PRNewser , 20 agencies pitched their services to United, although the airline would not name the other agencies. Edelman and United penned a three-year agreement for an undisclosed amount of money.

Can’t get enough helpful lists? Well, here’s a list of lists to help public relations practitioners, compliments of Burrelles Luce’s Fresh Ideas blog.

Has a company ever asked you what it can do to be a good PR client? BLASTmedia’s Ryan Greives said new clients often pose this question. “By simply asking this question,” he wrote, “they have already knocked out one of the best things clients can do when they are coming on-board with any public relations agency.” Greives tapped his BLAST colleagues to learn some of the top things companies can do to make them a “good PR client.” He shared ten of those things.

Many of the women in this survey are Facebook crazy . Not only do 33 percent check Facebook when they wake up — before using the bathroom! — but 57 percent said they talk to people via Facebook more than face-to-face. The study, from Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research, surveyed 1,605 women ages 18 to 34.

Advertising Age explored the challenges and pitfalls ahead for the advertising, marketing, media and public relations industries. The problem with PR, it said, is “that the industry as a whole has done a poor job of laying claim to being the authoritative voice on all things social and digital.” So, what should PR agencies do in 2010? “Looking ahead, most, if not all, PR shops need to put a more intense focus on navigating and understanding which outlets are having the most impact on c…

The 20 ideas provided in this list should help you prepare clients to work with the media. For instance, your clients should know they might have to drop their lunch plans or wake up early to do a TV, radio or print interview. The missed meal and lack of sleep are worth it. Also, remind them that the 20 minute interview might turn into a 20-second clip.

Google is talking with Twitter about buying the micro-blogging company, although varying reports place the talks in late and early stages of negotiations. It is suspected that Twitter is worth more than $250 million, even though it has not shown it can actually make money. Related Business Insider During interview with Twitter founder Biz Stone, cable host Stephen Colbert compared the company to Pets.com, a startup that went bust. That wiped the smile off Stone’s face. Related VentureBeat Check out…

Good tips, but if they fall into the wrong hands the results could be disastrous. For instance, tip No. 2 is “Start a blog.” That could get ugly, depending on who starts it. Tip No. 6 is “Do videos.” Lots of people have done videos — ousted Miss California Carrie Prejean, for instance — and often they’re boring, embarrassing, or downright inappropriate. So be careful.

Hey working moms, do you gush about your kids at the office? If so, you’ve seriously bugged one working mom—and now she’s taking no prisoners. “I know that my mother, who had a high-powered job in the 1970s, never confided to her colleagues, even the other women, the daily stress of raising three children,” Nancy Hass writes for Elle magazine. “How did we go from that absurd stance to one in which a woman trots out her reproductive bona fides as though she’s won …

“Blogcrastination” is “the deferment of writing a blog post to a later time; often a mechanism for coping with anxiety,” according to Copyblogger . Sound like something you might suffer from? Here are five symptoms. Related Entertainment Weekly Diane Keaton might play a professional blogger in an upcoming HBO series.

How active with social media are chief executives at 11 of the top PR agencies? For instance, do they have Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts? Do they blog? PRNewser researched these questions and published the answers. It turns out the social media footprint of most of these CEOs is unimpressive. This prompts the question: If these head honchos are talking to clients about joining social media, should they then be walking the walk? (By the way, the PR CEO on this list who appears to be mo…

So the Saints beats the Colts. What about the commercials? What about that commercial everyone was talking about? The Focus on the Family ad starring 2007 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow — one of the most hyped Super Bowl commercials in recent memory — didn’t deliver a polarizing pro-life message, though it did deliver lots of traffic to the organization’s Web site. According to The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, the Web site loaded slowly, or not at all, after the…

PR blogger Shannon Paul is very excited about a new social media newsroom she has developed, so she has shared 10 must-have elements of all social media newsrooms. Here’s must-have No. 2: “Every item should be embeddable and shareable—don’t make people consume your content at your place—there are much better ways to get people to opt in other than coercion and withholding.”