Job Board Leaders Roundtable: How Best to Leverage Social Media

This was the 12th of these informal get-togethers where job board leaders chat informally, share best practices, and ask questions. College Recruiter job search site has hosted these since the 2nd session, and we’re happy to continue to do so.

Each session is sponsored by Job Boards Connect, which is led by Louise Triance and Louise Grant. They host a highly engaging Slack channel as well as two in-person conferences a year.

Today’s meeting focused on social media sites, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Snap Inc., X, YouTube, and others. What risks and opportunities do they present to job boards? What are some of the best tips and tricks that our community has learned?

The meeting focused on social media strategies for job boards, discussing various platforms and approaches to effectively reach different audiences and promote job listings. Participants shared their experiences with different social media channels, content creation methods, and automation tools, emphasizing the importance of balancing brand awareness and performance marketing. The discussion also touched on measuring ROI for social media efforts, the evolving nature of platforms, and the potential for repurposing content across different mediums to maximize engagement and reach.

AI-generated recap:

• Matt to experiment with creating podcast content from nurse interviews and consider distributing on podcast platforms.
• Steven to connect interested participants with WRKdefined for podcast hosting opportunities.
• All participants to consider sharing their LinkedIn URLs in the chat for networking.
• Steven to send out invites for the next meeting on August 14th.
• All participants to consider trying Reddit for social media marketing, being mindful of platform rules.
• Matt to evaluate the effectiveness of his new content strategy for clients in 6 months.
• All participants to explore using Banner Bear or similar tools for creating graphics for social media posts.
• Mike to continue tracking search analytics on LinkedIn to measure social media effectiveness.
• Jordan to share more details about his successful Facebook strategy for construction jobs in Australia.

Summary

Job Boards Connect Conference Overview

Participants discussed the upcoming Job Boards Connect conference scheduled for October 16th near Marble Arch, London, and Louise Grant provided an overview of the organization’s activities, including their Slack group and upcoming events. The main topic of the meeting was social media, which will be discussed in detail in the next segment.

Social Media Strategies for Job Boards

The group discussed social media strategies for job boards, with Matt emphasizing the opportunity rather than threat of social media and sharing his experience with using agencies, which led to increased followers but lacked strategic engagement. Thibault presented Jobiqo’s product, which automates distribution of job listings across multiple channels, focusing on candidate-side marketing and targeting specific job roles based on location and level. The discussion highlighted the importance of balancing brand awareness and performance marketing, with Thibault explaining how Jobiqo helps job boards achieve both through automated advertising and boosted job listings.

Social Media Job Posting Strategy

Mike explained their social media strategy for job postings, which involves using Hootsuite to post jobs across LinkedIn, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter) in about 25-30 minutes per day. The process requires an Android device and involves sharing job listings from featured employers, with LinkedIn showing the best performance generating around 5,000 impressions and 700-750 clicks per month. Mike noted they could monetize the posts through paid promotions but currently keep it as an organic branding effort, managing multiple channels through a dedicated Facebook page for disabled jobs that has built a following of 3,000-4,000 people.

Job Board Social Media Strategies

The group discussed social media strategies for job boards, with Mike explaining his manual approach of featuring 3-4 jobs daily for annual subscribers on LinkedIn. Matt highlighted the importance of targeting different generations, noting that nurses prefer Facebook while Gen Zs might use TikTok, and Thibault emphasized the evolving nature of social media platforms. The discussion concluded with Steven noting that LinkedIn performs better for their audience compared to other platforms, and raised the question about influencer marketing through Flockety, though Matt indicated he hadn’t tried it yet.

Social Media Job Posting Strategies

Kasia discussed her social media strategy for job postings, focusing on LinkedIn and using Banner Bear to create graphics from job ad details. She shared that while she doesn’t currently track metrics, she has seen improvements in engagement after recent changes to her job board website and increased speaking engagements. Matt and Steven discussed the challenge of measuring ROI for branding activities, with Steven sharing an example of a $40,000 customer acquisition through podcast exposure, though the full impact of their B2B social media efforts remains unclear.

LinkedIn Recruitment Strategies

The group discussed the role of LinkedIn in recruitment and job searching, with Steven noting that LinkedIn ads are more effective for reinforcing positive decisions rather than prompting immediate action. Christian explained that their SMB clients primarily view LinkedIn as a job board, though they increasingly use it for social media presence, particularly through programmatic advertising which offers cost-effective alternatives to job slots. Mike shared that tracking user searches on LinkedIn provides valuable insights into brand visibility, while Steven encouraged participants to share their LinkedIn URLs for networking purposes.

LinkedIn Content Strategy and Branding

Matt shared his successful LinkedIn content strategy, which involves posting well-researched blog articles to drive engagement and share insights. He explained that he has shifted away from using LinkedIn to drive traffic to his blog, instead focusing on sharing valuable content directly. Matt also described a new content initiative involving interviews with healthcare professionals, which is part of a bundled offering for managed service clients. Thibault emphasized the importance of long-term brand building and customer relationships, noting that while ROI may not be immediate, it can positively impact client retention and brand positioning over time.

Social Media Recruitment Strategies

The group discussed various social media platforms for recruitment, with Jordan sharing his success using Facebook for construction jobs in Australia, achieving 250,000 organic impressions monthly and 5,000 users from Facebook to their jobs board. Steven suggested Matt could repurpose his nursing career interview videos into podcasts, potentially hosted by WRKdefined, and explained the differences between video content for YouTube and audio-only podcasts. The group also discussed Reddit’s limitations and restrictions, with Mike noting its restrictive nature and Steven warning about the need to follow subreddit rules carefully.