If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make a sound? If a marketer sends out a Tweet and no one reads it, does it make an impact?

With ratings data, demographics, psychographics and the like, it can be easy to figure out when people listen to the radio or watch T.V. But, how do you know when they’re logging onto Twitter?

According to Fast Company, the best time of day to Tweet in the U.S. is 9:00 a.m. PST, because people are getting to work on the West Coast and taking lunch on the East Coast. The best time to Tweet if you want to be re-tweeted is at 4 p.m. on Friday.

But what about YOUR target audience?

Luckily, there are a couple tools that will reveal when your followers are logging on:

• Tweet O’Clock is ideal for seeing the best time to Tweet a particular person
• When to Tweet analyzes ALL of your followers and recommends the best time to Tweet

Another thing to consider is repeating your Tweeting. It’s OK to repeat a.k.a. re-tweet useful Tweets because people log on to Twitter at different times throughout the day. Once every six to eight hours is a good amount of time between re-tweets. Be cautious not to do this ALL the time, because it could border on spamming. Speaking of Spam, please don’t Tweet about what you ate for lunch.

How do you decide when to Tweet? Have you tried either of these tools?

With social media trending all over the Web these days, social media links have become a part of just about every Web site and blog. And from this, designers are finding various, unique ways to customize these buttons. To cater to the ever-growing demand for such tools, unique Web sites offering freebie icons have been hunted and gathered.

There is a handy new list of 40 New and Trendy Free Social Bookmark Icon Sets available by YouTheDesigner. Take time to check out the list and download your favorites or browse and get inspired to come up with your own.

I have social media on the brain. Again.

It’s evolving, mysterious and a blank canvas for marketing creativity and strategy. I think it’s safe to say that everyone involved in social media is learning as they go. And, while there are some nay-sayers about ROI for social media, there is one point that can’t be argued. Social media can help improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO), when done effectively, of course.

So, HOW can social media improve your SEO?

1. Direct Links. Social media sites provide links. Lots of links. Google likes links. Google ranks sites with lots of links to them higher than those with very few links. Add links to your Web content on sites like Twitter or leave comments on blogs with relevant links to your site.
2. Keyword-optimized content. Have you noticed Tweets showing up in Google search results? Google and Yahoo index Tweets, so keep adding content to social media platforms for added visibility. The more valuable your content, the more likely someone else is to share it with their network.

How are you optimizing your social media content? Here are some helpful tools for Social Media Optimization.

I keep hearing marketing professionals extolling the benefits of social media for businesses. I always laugh when I hear, “social media is free.” Are you kidding me, people? While I agree that signing up for accounts on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Flickr, WordPress and the like comes at no charge, social media participation for businesses is hardly free.

First, you can’t just set up these accounts, post a few things and let them sit. To maximize your efforts, you must constantly update, tweet, friend, connect, write and reply. It’s about developing and distributing fresh content that your audience will be interested in and carrying on conversations, which takes a tremendous amount of time—and, time is money.

Also, social media is about listening and reacting quickly if your brand comes up in conversations. This takes planning and diligence in monitoring, which takes time, time you pay your employees and agency partners for. At Canyon, we developed guidelines for social media participation that our employees must abide by—this document wasn’t free to develop.

Oh, and technically, since social media tools are web-based, internet connections, mobile devices and bandwidth is all paid for through your ISPs and wireless providers.

Have you been able to spend the time to maximize your social media efforts? Has your social media involvement resulted in enough return to justify the investment? Still think social media is free?

photo courtesy: www.flickr.com/photos/Sean_McColgan