Most (yes, most) people have never considered working for you and, most likely, have never even heard of you or your company. This is not because they are passive or disinterested. It is because your reach does not extend into their universe. The hard question is "How do you expand their awareness of your brand? Of this or that opportunity?

The job boards, as we've said, do a great job of reaching the people they reach. Using them will powerfully augment the choices you have. If you want to reach the people that they don't, you need to try other means.

We find the emerging HotJobs approach to be useful in this regard. Just recently, we've begun receiving emails from them (in Yahoo mail accounts) that are well targeted offers for career fairs or even specific positions. We're not in their databases. The email marketing services at HotJobs may be one additional tool in the toolkit.

David Perry offers one approach

To reach the people that job boards can’t run an indirect campaign that coaxes the star players to ask to be interviewed.  I've had great success in generating attention-getting recruiting campaigns through the media, such that the “Right Stuff” candidates call and ask about the company.  For example one small, a relatively unknown entrepreneurial company needed to build a kick-ass development team. We decided to take an inventive contest for software developers to new heights  --  literally!  The reward for the best software application was a ride to the edge of space, in a Russian Foxbat fighter plane!  The idea caught the media’s imagination and gained North American-wide coverage in prestigious new-economy publications like Wired magazine. – we hired all the developers from among the more than 5700 who signed on to their web site – downloaded the software and built an application.  Having your phone ring is much better and easier than trying to make someone else’s phone ring.

There are few limits. Interestingly, we'd say that the emerging "network recruiting tools" simply optimize your existing reach by tapping people who know people who know people. They really don't do an interesting job of expanding reach, Typically, 3rd party staffing firms, in their myriad configurations, are more likely to expand the market's awareness of your employment brand and opportunities.

Keep up with Revisiting The Job Board Series:

• Rm 4 Imprvmt 1: Introducing the 10 Issues
• Rm 4 Imprvmt 2: Big Picture Hurst and Ramer
• Rm 4 Imprvmt 3: Fire Hose?
• Rm 4 Imprvmt 4: There are no Passive Candidates
• Rm 4 Imprvmt 5: David Perry and Dub Dubs
• Rm 4 Imprvmt 6: Fit & Hans Gieskes
• Rm 4 Imprvmt 7: Reach and Don Firth

If you don’t know where your applicants are coming from, chances are you’re wasting time and money. SmartPost takes the guesswork out of online posting efforts. How? When you post through our system, detailed metrics tell you the source of your candidates, and help you adjust your strategy accordingly.

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• Where are my candidates really coming from?
• Which job boards are performing?
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Stop guessing. Come take a look [www.smartpost.com]