Very few people at small businesses are dedicated to full-time social media marketing (it’s coming).

So between balancing all of your other responsibilities, you have to find some time, some dedicated time, to participation.  Plain and simple.  If you don’t, here’s what I predict will happen:  You’ll get bored on the slow return (ROI and otherwise), you won’t follow the metrics, and, most tragically, you won’t make any worthwhile connections with customers that are reaching out to you.

It’s the digital equivalent of sticking your head in the sand.  Before you do that, try this: use a schedule.

I work first hand with a whole lot of technophobes.  These are people that don’t like tech under the best of circumstances (irony alert: now it’s their job!).  I can guarantee you that a schedule clears the clutter, sets the bar low, and allows for a path into the world of social media marketing.

Ever see people in the gym staring at the equipment?  Those people don’t have a plan.  They won’t see any results.  But what about the woman who goes at 6 a.m. for 45 minutes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for aerobics and at 3 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday to lift weights? Better, right?  That’s the way to do it.

Here’s roughly how I use my social media schedule:

1 hour in the morning: When I get to work, I spend the first hour catching up on social media.  Mostly, I use my RSS reader and Twitter.

I go through my reader to find blog posts that might be interesting.  Of these, I choose 4 or 5 to make comments on.  They’re often the same blogs, because I like what the authors have to say (though I branch out, too).  I’ll also post to twitter anything I find that’s interesting.

As I do this, I’m also searching Twitter.  I’ve set up different feeds to bring me information on what people are saying about different subjects.  I can comment on what those people say, or, most often, re-tweet what they’ve posted to show it to anyone listening on my network.

Twice each week, 1 hour in the morning: I blog.  I have a good idea who our audience is, so I like to plan in advance what subjects I’m going to cover here.  I talk about content, mostly, and how it relates to digital marketing as a whole.  Most of it is basic, and I try to offer actionable items that people can put into practice right away.  Pat writes about SEO tips mainly, sometimes high level, but most often it’s stuff that everyone can use.  Again, he’s including actionable items.

Once we have a post up, we announce it on Twitter.  It’s nice to see that people that I’ve RTed will often return the favor, so our content gets spread around

20 minutes mid-morning: Just before noon, I’ll check in on Facebook.  There’s some research that shows that around 11:30 is the best time to post updates on Facebook for business pages, so I look around to see what our clients are up to, how they’re posting information, and what other businesses in their vertical are doing.  I check metrics on pages that I’m an administrator on twice a week, so I know exactly what kind of communities are being built.

20 minutes in the afternoon: Time to check back in with Twitter and Facebook.  If anything weird happens, or if there’s a problem, the earlier we catch it, the better.  Also, there might be some direct messages or posts that I want to respond to.

15 minutes in the afternoon: I’m subscribed to several linkedin groups, so I’ll usually read the threads.  I do more lurking there than anything else, but meeting @LewisHowes at SOBCon 2010 inspired me to get more involved.  I’ll update you.

And that’s about it for the social media part.  The rest of my day I spend writing and managing projects. (I know- I must be living right!)  There are other things that will be incorporated as time progresses; mobile marketing is becoming a much bigger part of our content strategy, for instance.  And that’s all part of it; it will have its place on the schedule just like the rest.

A note about timing: For me, it’s just as important to step back from social media as it is to participate.  IT’s easy to get caught up in the conversation, and before I know it, I’m missing out on my writing and management work.  That’s why the schedule is so helpful; it works for off time, too.

I’ll also say that I never separate one from the other.  Participating in social media is just as much a part of my work as writing.  Anyone who told you that social media will take care of itself lied.

What’s your schedule look like?