Niche, nimble, and necessary: Winning strategies against the biggest job boards

I have the pleasure of hosting on Zoom a monthly Job Board Leaders’ Roundtable, a collaborative and very collegial gathering of leaders of job boards and related organizations. Matt Farrah, the founder of Nurses.co.uk, came up with the idea and I ended up moderating the discussions starting with our second gathering. They’re now the second Thursday of every month at 11am U.S. Eastern, which is 4pm in the UK most of the year.

Earlier today, several dozen of us met to discuss how best to compete against the biggest job boards. Much of the conversation was focused on whether a great way to do that was to build community, but we also talked about differentiating our products and, perhaps most importantly, the lessons we can learn from history about not fighting battles with our rivals on the terms they want to fight them. As Matt reminded us, Hannibal defeated the Romans by understanding that he couldn’t be better at fighting using their preferred tactics and strategies. He needed his own, and he needed those to be significantly different. If we’re going to win our share of business when our customers are also considering buying from Indeed or LinkedIn, we shouldn’t try to be a better version of Indeed or LinkedIn. We need to be a good version of something different, which Joe Meyer of ExecThread spoke well to.

As always, a big thanks to Louise Triance and Louise Grant of Job Boards Connect for sponsoring these monthly roundtables. Their next event is in London in two months. If you’re not signed up yet, do so. Their events are a little like these Roundtables in terms of the audience and subject matter, but they’re in real life and the information you learn and people you meet will be massively beneficial.

AI-Generated Meeting Notes:

The monthly job board leaders roundtable meeting was held, with discussions led by Steven and Louise. The group discussed the upcoming Job Boards Connect conference scheduled for October 16th in London, which will feature sessions on how job boards and digital advertising platforms can improve. Louise announced that Matt and Joe would be speaking at the conference, and Steven noted that the meetings are sponsored by Louise and Giants from Job Boards Connect.

Niche Job Boards Community Strategy

The group discussed strategies for niche job boards to compete with larger platforms like Indeed and LinkedIn. Mike emphasized the importance of building and staying within a specific community, while Joe shared Exec Thread’s experience with community building, noting the challenges and potential benefits. Louise and Matt agreed that recruiters primarily care about application quality and volume, rather than the community aspect of job boards. The discussion concluded that while community building can be a powerful tool, it should be carefully considered and strategically implemented to avoid becoming a distraction for small job boards.

Job Board Content and Community

The group discussed the value of community and content in job boards, with Matt highlighting how unique, high-quality content can differentiate a job board from competitors like Indeed and attract targeted audiences through strong SEO. Joe shared ExactThread’s approach to community building by featuring executive members in newsletters and on LinkedIn, while Christian explained that some employers prefer niche job boards for hard-to-fill roles but often prioritize ease of use and programmatic services. Steven suggested that community aspects might emotionally influence employers’ decisions to partner with certain job boards, though Matt noted that in his experience, employers primarily focus on cost and application volume.

Job Platform Innovation and Growth

Joe shared his experience of not being concerned about competitors’ actions, emphasizing the importance of innovation and differentiation, and highlighted his startup’s success in creating a unique value proposition that wasn’t initially requested by customers. He discussed the self-feeding nature of his platform, where executive members who find jobs through the site often return as employers, and suggested there might be untapped opportunities in this area. Steven shared examples of other job platforms with overlapping customer and advertiser bases, and Joe agreed that such opportunities exist but are not actively pursued by his company.

Community-Driven Job Board Evolution

Stephen and Steven discussed the role of community in niche job boards, with Stephen highlighting how these platforms often serve as a secondary service to support community needs, such as networking and sharing sector-specific information. Steven shared an example of a nurse-focused platform that began as a discussion board and later added job listings to meet user needs. Mike confirmed that his website, which supports individuals with disabilities, operates similarly, providing community support and resources alongside job opportunities.

Confidential Job Sharing Community

Joe explained that Executive was initially built on a crowdsourced job board model, where early members shared confidential job opportunities from executive recruiters. Stephen noted that job searches are typically discrete exercises, but community job boards require participants to adopt different mindsets about their job searches. The discussion highlighted the tension between maintaining confidentiality in job seeking while building community, with Joe sharing that members often deny finding jobs through Executive even when data proves otherwise.

Job Board Success Strategies

The group discussed the success of a forum and job board that was moderated by cabin crew members, which led to authentic discussions and positive results. Matt emphasized the importance of treating user-generated content as a standalone product with a job board on the side, and clarified that his platform does not accept guest posts. Steven shared a tip about using featured.com to gather expert quotes for content creation. The conversation ended with Matt drawing parallels between Hannibal’s military strategy and small businesses competing against larger companies like Indeed, while Joe offered a different perspective that emphasized the lack of direct competition between smaller and larger job boards.