Today, I am asking a similar question I recieved via email recently from someone who wanted advice on how to migrate a Nigerian online jobs forum into a Web 2.0 site. I am hoping that readers would provide different perspectives to this question.

Personally, I think that an online jobs forum that wants to adopt web 2.0 tools and technologies should critically access and determine the web needs of its target audience. For example, if the target audience are people who just click to find job announcements and hardly spend time on the site, then you may not need to bother about Web 2.0.

On the otherhand, if your audience are web-savvy (i.e they understand what is means to interact, discuss and network within an online forum), then you should consider investing some time and money in Web 2.0 for your site.

Here, I am suggesting a few web applications that may fit into the framework of a typical online job forum and thus building a Web 2.0 forum.

1. Aggregation Model/Strategy

The site could aggregate job announcements from other sites. This may seem like providing links to other sites, but is that not what Web 2.0 means? Sharing information? I’ve thought about developing a site called Careergator, after the success of Afrigator.

2. Visual CV-Building Application

Since visual Cvs are becoming more popular today, an online forum could allow users to create their own CVs online using appropriate tools. That way, recruiters could find jobseekers easily. An example of a visual cv-building site is CV Crib.

3. Social Networking Approach

Social Networking is simply the major buzzword. Every Web 2.0 site on the web space seems to be adopting a social networking angle to their business. When your forum members can interact and network with other members who are jobseekers, they all can enjoy the benefits of meeting old friends, classmates, workmates and even establish new relationships through their networks.

4. Blogging

Blogs are more likely to get people’s attention, since they display information in a more organized way. Thus, for an online forum, a blog could be used to publish jobs, employment gists, as well as advice on careers. An example of a careers site that adopts the blog-style is careersnigeria.com, Nigeria’s leading job and recruitment site.

5. Mobile Job Alerts

These days, you can do virtually everything with mobile phones. An online jobs forum that applies mobile 2.0 applications to inform users of recent job announcements will be a smash.

6. RSS Feeds

Feeds have become a very popular Web 2.0 application that syndicates information into a reader for easy access. It is gradually replacing the email newsletters and can be accessed through Google Reader amongst others.

7. Social Media Applications

Social media sites such as Digg, Sturvs, Muti, Technorati, etc are very useful Web 2.0 tools that could be adopted into online forums. Thus, job announcements and employment gists could move around the web space so fast when these tools are used effectively.

Are there any other Web 2.0 technologies that can be adopted for online forums?