It’s easy to lose track and put far more time into social media and network marketing than you plan, but there are some dos and don’ts that you should adhere to to maximize your ROI.One of the keys is to plan ahead:

Map out a weekly schedule that outlines the specific days and times you will spend on social media. Figure out what’s realistic and what makes sense for your company and go from there. Here’s a sample weekly schedue.

• Everyday: You post one update at 9 a.m., one at 1 p.m. and one at 5 p.m.
• Mondays and Wednesdays: You dedicate 10 minutes to responding to comments and direct messages at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
• Tuesdays and Thursdays: You dedicate 10 minutes at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to retweeting people’s comments and thanking people for mentioning you or retweeting your posts.

This is just an example, but you should definitely take the time to devise a social media strategy that makes sense for you.

Entrepreneur.com covers a number of related tips, including tools that you can use to save you time, and setting reasonable expectations for the time that you put into social networking.