Just a quick story on how our friends over at Headshift Australia have progressed since our last interview a few months ago.

Headshift is a global Social Media Consultancy based in London, New York, Paris, Zurich and Sydney.

TechNation Australia (TNA): So what has the take up of your services been like since we last spoke a few months ago?

Anne Bartlett Bragg (ABB): We have noticed a dramatic hike in interest in our services over the last 3 months, due in part to the financial downturn and marketers increasing awareness of what social media is and how it operates.  We are finding that larger companies are beginning to ask for direction and education in the space, which proves that talk about social media in corporate circles is getting louder.

TNA: How do you think Australian Social Media will progress this year?

ABB: It will be tough.   Alot of marketing departments have had their 09 budgets slashed dramatically.  Because of this we are seeing alot of marketers coming to us wanting to know what options they have in social media, how it actually works and how much it would cost.   I think this year is going to be all about educating the commercial sector on the benefits of Social Media and literally how it operates.

TNA: What effect has the economic downturn had on Social Media?

ABB: I think all in all, its a very positive thing for social media.  As cost cuts sweep the commercial landscape, the main priority is to save cash and get a constructive ROI on marketing campaigns that will be rolled out.  Social Media is cost effective, targeted and measurable which can lead to a solid ROI.   Again, what the downturn has done is given marketers the opportunity to ask for information and learn about social media and what it can do for their company.

TNA: Twitter hasn’t got a hold of the mass market in Australia yet, if this was the year for it to happen, what effects will it have on the Australian Tech Landscape?

ABB: So far, bloggers have been affected by Twitter the most in Australia.  Alot of bloggers comment that they (for the moment) are not writing as many storys or articles on their blogs because they are tweeting most of their thoughts on Twitter.  What effect this has in the long term I am not sure of, but it will be an interesting trend to follow.    I think that commercial businesses who want to maximise their internal communications would benefit greatly from a Twitter like service too.  It provides a platform for thoughts, insights and progress on work being done by each employee in the company in realtime, which allows collaboration to flow effectively through the business, which then maximises productivity.  This space will also be an interesting one to watch.

Thanks again to Anne and the Headshift Team for always being open for a chat with us here at Technation Australia