Many of my fellow job board owners are like ostriches with their heads in the sand. They don't want to admit that social media is having and will have more of an impact on our businesses. Unfortunately, those owners fail to realize that while some of the effect is and will continue to be negative, some is and will continue to be positive.
More and more employers are not just talking about building candidate communities but they're actually doing it and social media is integral to the success of those groups. Job boards can also play a large role, but not the only role. But go to the conferences and listen -- really listen -- to the thought leaders in corporate recruiting and you'll hear loud and clear that the day of spending the lion's share of their recruitment budget on job postings and resume searching is gone and never coming back. Few will say they won't spend anything and even those who do will agree that they will spend on niche sites but whether they're spending none or just less there can be no doubt that job boards which continue to offer the same tools as we offered in the 1990's will perish.
For job boards to survive and even thrive, they must innovate. They must integrate with social media. They must listen -- really listen -- to their clients. And if they do all of that, they'll get that job boards aren't job boards because they sell postings and resume searching. They're job boards because they provide their employer clients with value in helping those clients more efficiently and effectively connect with the best candidates for those employers.
