As per the Jomsocial wike, js_side_top only works on some pages:
js_side_top - Placed on top of the side column (sidebar) of Frontpage, Profile, Groups and Events Pages.
How do I get it to appear on other jomsocial pages?

Example
I have a menu item which displays a lsit of ALL community members: index.php?option=com_community&view=search&task=browse

I want to be able to add a (non Jomsocial) member search module on the right hand side of the page.
I don't want to use a Joomla position for this but rather have the module show up like normal Jomsocial modules in the JS component page. (ie using js_side_top or equivalent)

Hi Marc,

here the custom file that I made for you. extract it at put it under /templates/rt_oculus/html/com_community/ (create the folder if not exist) this is override method, so it will not disappear at upgrade process. documentation.jomsocial.com/wiki/Customizing_Template

Regards,
Albert

Thank you.
I was on the same track but I missed the first div to show listings in the span8 class.

As an aside: As per the documentation, js_side-top is a global position, so it will show up on all of the other js_pages too (profiles, events, frontpage, groups)
If you want your module to ONLY to show on a specific page, you can use an Itemid in your menu/link URL.
However, this creates other problems with direct linking, ajax switches etc

I found the best solution was simply to create a new JS custom position eg $this->renderModules( 'js_new _position' ) and then assign the modules to this position