Future for Job Boards - possibly...

This post is prompted by a really interesting (to me!) debate started on Matt Alder's blog here about whether Job Boards will die off in same way as print classified advertising is. My thoughts on this are as follows
1. All media need to innovate and improve their product - better search, better user experience etc. If products don't do this - they will be thrashed by the competitors forget about any seismic marketplace changes.
2. Job Boards do 2 main things - connect employers/recruiters to candidates (and vice versa) and provide a searchable CV database.
3. The CV database model is fragile i think - via LinkedIn and other methods of online profiling (which social may/is developing at at a pace. Job Boards don't add any value in its CV database (there are good and bad search tools i know) and this product has been ruthlessly exploited by rec cons and not touched by direct clients. Like a plague of locusts - the rec cons having stripped a database of its ripe fruit will move on to the next host (LinkedIn. industry forums etc) .
4. But the core ad model is a beautifully efficient way of connecting recruiters to candidates. In 10 seconds from mobile device or PC - a user can get the top 10 most relevant current jobs delivered to their screen. He/she can respond via email in about 30 seconds and be back on Facebook. I am not ignoring the approx 5 issues about process above (bad search, too easy to apply, lack of quality in jobs, lack of quality in applications. But as a method of getting consumer to provider - it is staggeringly efficient. and efficiency and speed work online.
5. Now the thing that (many) job boards have never cracked is the browser, the passive candidate (the semi mythical quality candidate who you can access via beautiful high impact branding placed where that user consumes media). I fundamentally believe this is the huge gargantuan opportunity that a lot of our social media work can begin to deliver on. And being as the job boards have been rubbish at this historically not sure they will miss out too much.

The above is oversimplistic and all your advertising, engagement and employer brand impacts on each other but if you want to recruit and you put up great web/search friendly content in the right place with a super efficient response mechanism -the job boards (and PPC) will continue to deliver for you in coming years.

NB with proviso that someone somewhere is coming up with something so brilliant that any long term prediction can make fools of us all!

Times/SundayTimes and Rec Advertising

OK - the paywall went up this week which means we now have to pay to access the editorial content here. Now i am slightly conflicted in that i want to support innovation and new business models (OME, in its way, has completely re-written what a successful rec ad agency might look like) but.....
Our job is to plan and buy the best media for our clients and the redesign and re-launch of their sites have the following issues.
1. If you have to register (lets forget paying for time being) - many people won't bother - speaking personally i wouldn't bother unless there is information data and content that is not available elsewhere. Does the times site have this? i really don't know. Therefore traffic is and will be down - this is fact not conjecture. Therefore response is and will be down - fact not conjecture.
2. At same time - the times and Sunday Times have split sites. Now for last 10 years - users have been going to timesonline to access jobs and adverts for senior executives. Now - no rec con can advertise on Timesonline and no job above £40K salary. So the user goes to where the relevant jobs have been for 10 years - searches and gets zero ads returned. Result - the user goes elsewhere...
3. The damage here would be lessened if there was proper signposting of where users (indeed recruiters) should go next - instead its a maze and requires a lot of dead ends and clicks to try and find what you need. Not a shock to anyone but the digital user is a lazy person who wants instant gratification not to have to think about where should i go next?
4. If you are gong to make this sort of change - you had better have a big marketing budget to persuade people - i have yet to see this.

So all this is without looking further at damage of a paywall - my overall thought is - i love the Times/SundayTimes as a media. i really like the people we deal with but this appears to have been done without putting the recruitment advertiser or candidate anywhere near their thoughts. And the really silly thing is - i reckon you can solve some of the issues above in a day but will they do so before real damage is done??

Marker Post to end of B2B Print Media

It did not warrant much comment and i only noticed it this morning but Personnel Today's print edition is no more -it was a rock solid big margin product for most of its 22 years existence and now its gone. Not much of a prediction but next 6-9 months will see it joined by a host of other B2B print products. Much sympathy if people have lost jobs but an inevitability.
I also see that Trinity Mirror's(national and regional newspaper publisher and owner of some "interesting" digital acquisitions) Sly Bailey has announced 25% reduction in journalist jobs, 41% plunge in profits. I would not wish to be personal but this is from a person who said decline in print classified revenue was cyclical and would return - still good to see that at the same time she has awarded herself a performance related pay rise of £676,000. Nice work if you can get it.

Motivation and the Business Owner

A rare moment of self analysis and honesty - we set up OME 4 years ago and we are doing very well at the moment but....
1. My own personal motivation is not quite what it has been - it just does not feel very exciting at the moment
2. We weathered storm of 2009 and did fine and have come out of it very healthily - so also lack the best motivator of them all - sheer terror that you will lose everything and the shame of failure (always found this to be my chief driver!)
3. We have a team in place who can do all the things i do but actually are better at doing what they promise to do - so don't feel the whole thing would fall down without me. In fact can absolutely say the whole thing wont fall down without me
4. Plenty of medium/long term things i should be doing but due to factors above - cant quite get round to doing them - this is chiefly around topic of business strategy and potential investment

Now apologies for navel gazing - and i know i will snap out of it soon and this is not exactly a major problem but as Arsene Wenger once said (probably) " who motivates the motivators"

Unintended Revenue Streams

I was reviewing 2010 figures this week and we seemed to have made done a lot of work in LinkedIn Consultancy this year so far. I am of course aware that we are out there helping our clients use the power of Linkedin but had not comprehended how much of a rev stream it had become. and you know what - i am actually a little uncomfortable with some of the work we have doen/are doing. I am not getting all precious about it - its just that our most popular service in this area is helping recruiters upload their profiles effectively, populate it well and show them how to network, join/set up forums and search for users.
Now the fact is much of this is freely available ( even we do downloadable 1 pagers on it) and ultimately - some of the work becomes sitting with someone while they upload their CV - which i am not sure ever appeared in the OME business plan.
Anyway i will shut up now and find some other new and welcome revenue streams

seminars and debates

Ran the latest breakfast briefings this week and its amazing how far they/we/industry has come in last 2 years since we started these. As ever - i stated the fact that we love job boards - great ROI - good execution will get excellent results but the reality is there is very little interesting to present on the topic at moment (so covered it in 30 seconds). I maybe also try and keep it fresh for myself too and dont like presenting the same old stuff. Its more of a compliment i think to the sector - everyone gets it now.

I also retired a slide that i originally ripped off tim and alastair ex of Enhance which maps IAB/PwC market value of digital vs national press/trade press/business pres. The West has been won - digital is dominant - its now about how best to exploit a complex ever changing sector.

Feedback and dialogue were at a really high level during and partic after event - and it was a pleasure to run.



Tenuous link to last night leaders'debate - but we try not to patronise and talk to audience like a 10 year old as the politicians are advised. I am not going to get involved in political views (did have a bit of a twitter exchange last night though) but the biggest thing it reconfirmed to me is that there is no absolute truth - just individual perspective. I watched it and was fairly convinced by who came out well and who did really badly. I find the opposite reported on TV and newspapers. Are they right or me? did i just convince myself as i wanted a certain output that this view was the most compelling argument.

April 2010 - Nobody has a clue

Met with two ex colleagues this week and both have started (or about to start) new ventures -
Ex boss 1 - was in a corporate "trad" publisher charged with maintaining some print revenues and cutting costs and turning round some distressed web sites.
Ex employee 2 - is in a 2nd year start up which had such a complex (game changing) offering that i still don't really get it after it being explained to me twice.
Now normally i would form a very quick view on the prospects of these ventures but i had the humbling realisation that we are again at such a massive turning (tipping!!) point in our industry, economy, society that i have no idea which of these or both or neither has greater chance of success.
Think i should keep my eyes on the OME shop - and let others fight their own battles