Branding Archives | Page 2 of 2 | Careerleaf Job Board Software

June 1, 2015August 19, 2016 by Maddy

Turning Your Job Board into an Online Community

Job boards are a tricky business. They have two types of customers, and in many ways they aren’t buying what you offer–they’re buying what they have to offer each other.

As a job board owner, you are the facilitator, the venue through which they are able to find each other. You create and maintain a space that attracts both parties.

Despite evidence that job boards are a significantly big, if not the biggest, source of hires, many employers and recruiters don’t always feel like they get their money’s worth. They want quality applicants. If you’re not attracting those applicants to your board, you’re never going to make your recruiting customers happy.

I think it’s important to draw lessons from outside of the job board/recruiting space, and job boards could benefit from viewing themselves more as online communities. Online community building tends to be about creating loyal, engaged, regular customers, as exemplified in this list Momentology.com compiled on brands who’ve done great brand-oriented community building.

Advice for Growing Your Association Job Board

Professional associations often have their own set of challenges and advantages when it comes to job boards, so we’ve gathered up our best advice for them.

Honesty in Employer Branding and Attracting Candidates

You’re hiring! That means finding and attracting candidates who you then need to evaluate for the position. But it’s not that simple, is it?

Let’s define what it is you or your company wants when you’re looking to hire. Bottom line? You need somebody who can do the work you need done.

But typically, most employers also want that someone to:

Do the work really well
Have the traits and interpersonal skills that enable them to work with others in the workplace as necessary
Help strengthen their organization through their efforts

We’ve seen a shift in how we talk about recruiting and hiring, and the idea has emerged that employers need to market themselves to candidates as great places to work/people to work for, similarly to how a company markets to customers. Over the past two decades, we’ve seen the Internet multiply and diversify–no matter what it is you’re looking for, you will find it in abundance, and easily. A little too easily, sometimes.