Job board con­tent suc­cess? Huh? Well, job boards have long believed – or were taught to believe by search engines – that job ads were ‘their’ only real con­tent. In oth­er words, a job board was noth­ing with­out the pri­mal con­tent of job ads. After all, refer to the moniker ‘job board’ – a dig­i­tal ‘board’ that has reams of job list­ings. Obvi­ous, eh?

Well, not so fast, bud­dy! What to make of a job board like LinkedIn, with its end­less streams of user-gen­er­at­ed blath­er? Or a job board like The­Muse, with its copi­ous employ­er spot­lights? Or Stack­Over­flow, with its numer­ous ques­tions and answers? Or a job board like Archinect, with its pro­files of firms and projects? Or… The list goes on and on. Sure, these sites have plen­ty of job ad con­tent – but they also have plen­ty of oth­er con­tent. 

Per­haps a more use­ful ques­tion to ask is: Why do job boards have con­tent that isn’t job ads? Why – if job ads are so fun­da­men­tal to a job board­’s iden­ti­ty – would such con­tent be added?

Hmm. Maybe the con­tent that isn’t job ads turns out to be impor­tant to the job board in the long run. Maybe the con­tent turns out to be the job board­’s source of suc­cess. Dou­ble hmm.

(And yes, there are plen­ty of suc­cess­ful job boards that rely almost entire­ly on job ad con­tent – like Indeed. Remem­ber, there are many paths to nir­vana!).

But if you’re in a com­pet­i­tive mar­ket – like (ahem) every­one! – then you’re prob­a­bly look­ing for an edge. A way to dri­ve can­di­date engage­ment. A way to stand out. And a way to weath­er the ups and downs of the labor mar­ket – through boom and bust. And guess what? Con­tent can pro­vide that edge – con­tent that is cohe­sive, that has an atti­tude or per­son­al­i­ty, that informs and engages, and that speaks direct­ly to your can­di­date audi­ence. The right kind of con­tent, deliv­ered reg­u­lar­ly and con­sis­tent­ly, can define your job board – in a pos­i­tive way.

Think about those ear­li­er exam­ples. Linked­In’s goal is to make its users feel like they have to read it – every day. by design. 

So…what does your con­tent say about your job board? Think about it. And think about job board con­tent suc­cess!

Note: The Doc­tor is vis­it­ing oth­er doc­tors for a rework on his leg – so this is a  repost from 2022. Hope you enjoyed it!

[Want to get Job Board Doc­tor posts via email? Sub­scribe here.].
[Check out the Job­Board­Geek pod­cast archive!]

Related