I found it most interesting that people feel 'compelled' to respond to tweets, emails, FaceBook requests etc. in a shortened time frame. I also sometimes get anxious when I think that I'm overdue to reply to someone via social media or email, but then I think "I've got stuff to do".
I think it's necessary to some degree to 'train' the people you will be in contact with, and not the other way around. If you constantly reply in mere minutes to almost every email, then people will expect it, and get upset when it takes you *GASP!* an ENTIRE DAY to respond.
My brother lets everyone know - if you email him it will take a few days for him to get back to you. If it's life or death, call him. If you don't have his phone number, it's probably NOT life or death. I guess you could say his scalability is a 1:1 scale. Or maybe, you shouldn't say that at all.
People, like cats, will react to you the way you've taught them to react.

Hi John:

Thank you for including me in this episode. I remembered when listening to Gary Vaynerchuk recently in his visit to Toronto that he also talked about scalability, that at some point you can't respond to everyone individually in the social networks. He does, however, read all his email and sends responses even if they are canned ones. Apparently he sends a link to a video clip of him explaining why he won't be able to give a personal answer, but then he does send the messages to someone on his team who can help. Interesting approach.

And, interesting episode.

Cheers,
Connie