Celebrity Deathmatch was an old MTV claymation program that pitted celebrities against each other in a no-holds-barred wrestling match. Social media now has its own version (minus the insane and campy gruesomeness) in a new app for LinkedIn. Sarah Kessler writes that startup Mixtent now offers LinkedIn users a way to rate colleagues. It’s being called an alternative to the professional social network’s sometimes clunky written recommendation system.  

With Mixtent, a LinkedIn user chooses two other LinkedIn members who share a similar skill. The user then chooses which person is better at that skill—and the ratings are completely anonymous. According to Mixtent, an algorithm weighs votes to ensure that the comparisons are fair and relevant, producing an objective snapshot of how a particular person is perceived by colleagues and connections. The site then inserts the ratings into a leaderboard that ranks talent for that specific skill.

This type of rating system has the potential to impact your staff’s professional online reputation, which is an important, but sometimes forgotten, aspect of a brand’s overall social media strategy—especially in the B2B space. Potential clients, vendors, investors, and other LinkedIn users who access Mixtent will be able to easily see how others rank your staff’s skills against other professionals.

So what’s the word on Mixtent: thumbs up or thumbs down?