Recently, various media articles have alluded to the death of the job board, supplanted this time by social media. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal cited a December 2010 survey by the Corporate Executive Board, which found that 24 percent of companies plan to decrease their use of commercial job boards while 80 percent said they planned to increase their use of social media sites and referrals to generate candidates.

Of all the major boards, Monster has been the most vocal in its opposition of job-boards-are-dead viewpoint, noting that it shouldn’t be a "job boards versus social media" discussion in the first place. To a certain extent, we agree.

There’s no doubt that social media has gained a significant foothold in the recruiting industry with Facebook and LinkedIn generating leads for both job seekers and recruiters through networking and referrals. So it only makes sense that employers look at ways to reallocate their recruitment budget, particularly as increased spending isn't often an option as we continue our economic recovery.

This doesn’t mean that there isn’t still a place for the major job boards. Strong brands and affiliations with local newspapers and many professional organizations are just a few reasons why millions of job seekers visit them each day. Further, many of these job boards continue to evolve and develop new technologies to improve the results employers can achieve — candidate matching, direct marketing and network advertising programs aimed at passive candidates are just a few ways that the job boards have reinvented themselves over the years.

From our perspective, it all comes back to developing a targeted program that uses a range of media channels based on various factors. For some industries and professions, job boards and postings are indispensable and the only way to connect with prospective candidates. For others, particularly those that are actually experiencing labor shortages, job postings probably won’t yield much response. But that doesn’t mean you can’t find the right person via a job board by instead using resume search or an ad campaign targeting passive candidates.

In addition, advances in technology have made it possible to track advertising effectiveness in ways we wouldn’t have dreamed of a decade ago. Many companies can now see where their hires are coming from via tracking technology, which is far more reliable than self-reported information. It’s crucial that the data gleaned from tracking technology be used to inform the recruitment marketing strategy. And, it’s highly likely that many employers will find that postings on major commercial job boards are the most effective source of candidates for certain positions. At the same time, they’ll find that their use of social media and mobile marketing are the only way to connect with candidates for other opportunities.

One thing we do agree with is that job boards now find themselves in the same place that newspapers did in the late 1990s. If they can do a better job identifying new ways to stay relevant and provide value to the recruitment process then they’ll likely enjoy a longer life expectancy.