Social Niche Job Boards

I’ve been banging on about social job boards for yonks now. And there are still folks out there who remain unconvinced of their supremacy over traditional job boards. Or, at the least, there are folks who think this so-called supremacy is a long way off.

So, in an effort to practise what I preach (amen, do you you hear me brothers and sisters?); in an effort to get that particular ball rolling, I’ve decided to have a shot at a couple of social job boards. Here they are: SalesZoo & GamerJobs

Go and check them out. Here’s a chance for the members of the congregation to critique me for a change. Be gentle:)

Important Information On Your Account At CareerOne.com.au

I received an email from CareerOne today asking:

Dear Careerone Employer,

As a valued customer, you are receiving this email as our records show that you have posted a job ad with CareerOne.com.au and we want to make sure your account remains active.

We are currently updating our records to ensure we continue to offer our advertisers the best service and support. As a result, any accounts that have not been accessed in the last 18 months will be deleted.

To keep your account active, simply login to your account today.

Forgotten your password? We can resend it to you.

I appreciate the need to keep business and sometimes the way to do this is to get customers who have dropped off, back on board.  I have not advertised with CareerOne for over three years.  And I daresay there’d be many others in my position.  Is this email going to inspire me to begin advertising with them again?  Unlikely.

There’s nothing wrong with a phone call.  This seems to be a lazy way of doing a necessary job.  Plus, it looks like one of those bank scam emails and I am not about to click and find out…

Future Of Job Boards – Is It Social

Online community is a bit of a buzzword at the moment and I reckon it’s important we begin to define it in the context of recruitment. Why? Because recruitment is moving rapidly into an almost entirely online workspace. This being the case, whatever is a hot topic in the internet generally, becomes a hot topic for us. More importantly, though, we need to understand this concept in order to shape how we respond to it.

Here’s where I break it down for the readers: There are two main components to the notion of community. These are: a) common interest b) communication. So, a community is a place where people with a common interest meet to exchange knowledge, discuss ideas or get to know one another.

The demands of our lives are such that, with regard to communication, interactivity is vital. It allows us to achieve all three aspects of communication in one shot. In doing this, we can make informed decisions about WHOSE information we need access to and WHAT sorts of things we want to know. Interaction gives us this. It permits us access to a subtext in the discourse of a particular communication. It does this through commentary, but also through circulation on social networks.

Okay, so where does this leave job boards?

Over the short term, what this means is that job boards will attempt to integrate some form of interactivity into their sites. Sites such as TribeHQ have already begun to do this.

In the long term, however, job boards will not serve the functional requirements of our society. Lacking some of the basic elements of community, they will not be able to satisfy the need to streamline information resources, and they will not provide the social proof required to verify the validity of their advertisements. Seek already have difficulty with this and dedicate a large amount of resources to preventing (sometimes unsuccessfully) fake job ads.

‘Future of the traditional job board’ was discussed together with Thomas Shaw and Diane Lee at the ‘Recruitment Rumble’ recently. Listen to the recording here.

Classified Ad Ventures Acquires Hippo Jobs

Simon Baker, the CEO of Classified Ad Ventures, has acquired the youth job board Hippo. Hippo appointed an administrator on March 24th.

This is a great result for James Masini, General Manager and founder of Hippo Jobs, as it gives him an economic lifeline and allows him a continued involvement in the company.

Simon has a good track record as a leader at the helm of a fledgling classified businesses. He resuscitated a drowning realestate.com.au in 2001 when they were down to their last few dollars. There, Simon grew revenues from $4m to $155m in FY 2008.

Simon Baker said, “We believe that niche jobs sites are a growing opportunity. Managers have less time than ever to troll through the hundreds of irrelevant CVs they often receive from the general jobs sites. Our investment in ArtsHub shows that by having a targeted audience, we are able to deliver a small number of quality candidates that meet the advertisers’ requirements.”

“Hippo has successfully matched the youth of Australia with employers of choice for the past 2 years. As part of the Classified Ad Ventures, advertisers and candidates using Hippo Jobs will benefit from a combined 40 years of online classified experience and receive better results.”

Hippo Jobs will report to Chris Vulovic, the head of Classified Ad Ventures’ Innovation team.

NEW simpsons opening credits

The new (or rather…updated version of the old) simpsons opening credits are here. enjoy it I

SEEK TVC

Seek.com.au tvc. The message is: If you don’t use Seek then you won’t find!

Live Recruitment Rumble – May 7th, 11:00am

There’s nothing like a good stoush.

And frankly, while I like nothing better than a good old jab at industry players like job boards and recruiters, I reckon it’s about time I took on one of my own kind.

So, rally around the shelter shed, peoples, it’s gonna be a bewdy. (details here)

Join online recruitment industry leaders Geoff Jennings and Thomas Shaw for a LIVE “Recruitment Rumble” Thursday May 7th, 11:00am – 12:00pm. All gloves will be off as Geoff and Thomas go head to head in a discussion about key topics (Geoff may even wear his shiny purple boxing shorts).

Joining in the live discussion is Diane Lee, founder of Even It Up! providing a perspective from the job seeker point of view and “outsider” to the industry.

Topics for discussion include:

- Future of the traditional Job board?
- SEEK vs. CareerOne/Monster – who will win?
- Fake job adverts?
- RCSA: Soft as a marshmellow?
- Should I use a recruitment agency or go direct?
- Background searching candidates online?

Do you want to listen or join in the discussion? Register here.

Geoff Jennings is the controversial man at the helm of http://www.geoffjennings.com, a site dedicated to keeping the recruitment bastards honest. He has worked for online industry leaders and is currently Managing Director of www.onlinerecruitment.com.au

Thomas Shaw is the “pretty boy” of online recruitment, having established his stranglehold of the industry via his blog www.recruitmentdirectory.com.au/blog By day he works in the recruitment industry, and at night a tweet from Thomas can make or break your organisation.

Diane Lee is the founder of Even It Up! which aims to provide information about recruitment practices for Australian jobseekers. Diane is leading the revolt from frustrated job seekers who want an even playing field www.evenitup.com.au

Michael Harvey Appointed CEO At CareerOne

Michael Harvey has been appointed new CEO of CareerOne. He succeeds Dr Stephen Hollings, who has been appointed director of sales strategy at News Ltd. Both appointments are effective as of May 1.

I had hoped there’d be no casualties. But I guess if you’re gonna fight a war, you want your best people up front, you know, leading the troups and all that.  I’m, not certain Harvey is C1′s MacArthur.  His background is in finance and he spent 11 years at Foxstudios.  A strategy man – no doubt.  But C1 needs more than strategy, it needs leaders who’ll fight on the frontlines.  Will Harvey be a leader with a viable weapon, or a spreadsheet?

Seek’s New Consumer Marketing Campaign

I know ANZAC Day is over, but sound the bugle again anyway.

There’s war on them streets.

Don’t panic.  I’m not talking the terrorist-blowing-the-biggest-building-they-can-find type war.  I’m talking war of the job boards.

This war will be fought with advertising grenades and marketing bullets.

Seek will strike the first blow with their “A New Job Every 30 Seconds” Campaign.  Civilians will become very familiar with this campaign, as it is set to have a heavy presence on billboards, trams* and buses, Hoyts cinemas and major FM stations (and we all know how important radio is during war time). Powered by Monster, CareerOne are set to retaliate with the May launch of their new site and offensive.

Like every good war correspondent, I’ll be donning the fatigues and reporting every strike.  Wish me luck out there, it’s gonna be down and dirty.

Here’s hoping the fatalities are low.

Wifey: Geoff, come here dahl.  You’ve got something on your nose.

Geoff: What?  Where? Here?

Wifey: No. Lower.  Here . I got it.  What is it?  Mud?

Geoff: It’s not mud.  It’s goddamn camouflage, okay? Camouflage. (Exits in a huff, muttering ‘Bloody civilians’).

ZaaBiz Pays Out On Twitter

Twitter’s popularity is surging, with 131% growth reported in March.

Networking site ZaaBiz.com.au is offering Twitters a chance to monetise their followers and turn them into income. Full details here.

For every unique member from Australia or New Zealand that registers on ZaaBiz based on your recommendation, you will receive AUD0.50. All your ( Australia and New Zealand only) followers need to do is sign up, and mention your Twitter ID in the space provided on the registration form. This helps you to be directly connected to him or her and it allows us to track new registrations following you to ZaaBiz.

Amen to those who follow this blog and believe my forecast that social media is the next big thing in recruiting.

For those of you who doubted me, I have nothing to say except – I told you so.

P.s Let ZaaBiz know that @geoffjennings referred you

« Previous Page — Next Page »