When LinkedIn and Facebook got into the recruiting game, many people started to sound the death bell for job recruiting boards. But according to Talentculture.com, job boards make up 42 percent of all quality hire activity, closely followed by social media. Why hasn’t social media been able to completely replace job boards as the default way to recruit and hire? The biggest reason is that the job board industry has been evolving and the new features being offered by job boards are attracting more candidates than ever.

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Niche Job Boards Allow For Focus

According to Social-Hire.com, the idea that social media offers a new reality in job hunting is simply overhyped. While social media does offer the ability to create focused candidate hunts, the fact is that too many people on social media are not giving their accurate information and it makes finding good candidates difficult. Instead of wading through millions of social media users, recruiters are opting for niche job boards that have very narrow candidate pools and offer exactly what recruiters are looking for.

Job Boards Allow For More Focused Networking

The simple truth is that people on social media are not always who they say they are. A candidate may think they are talking to human resources managers from companies in their field, but the reality may be very different. Niche job boards give candidates a real opportunity to network with real hiring managers and get their information seen by people who are who they say they are. Niche job boards eliminate the margin for error, and that is attracting a lot of top candidates.

Job Boards Make Searching Easier

Social media platforms are not designed to make anyone specific type of search easier than another. You may think it is easy to find engineering companies in New York City that are hiring on social media, but the reality can be extremely disappointing. Niche job boards have the best job search tools in the industry and are able to put candidates in touch with real potential employers that can help to advance their careers.

Job Boards Stay Updated

There is no concentrated effort on any social media platform to eliminate outdated information of any kind. You may try to do a candidate search for chemists in Portland, Oregon and you could wind up with 30 percent of the profiles you find either being duplicates or profiles that have not been updated in years. Niche job sites are constantly in contact with employers and candidates to make sure that all of their information is up to date and relevant. When you need to find a good candidate for your company, a niche job site is going to be your best bet.

The social media platforms offer plenty of benefits to job hunters and recruiters, but they do not have the kind of focus on job hunting that job boards do. Even though social media is extremely popular around the world, the best way to find a job or qualified candidate remains the online job board.

How can job boards and social media find a happy medium for utilizing the strengths of each?

George N Root III is a professional freelance writer who has expertise in topics such as Internet marketing, business, advertising, and personal finance.