I think that, with everything in the social media realm, real-time is not just an expectation, but should be the goal. I try to keep myself plugged in at all times, so that at the very least I can respond to @mentions, blog posts/comments, Facebook mentions or comments, etc as they come in (unless Im sleeping of course – which I think is the exception). 

What about everyone else?

@laurachristianson  Absolutely! Just make sure you have the proper alerts set up so that IF something were to happen (some form of a social media crisis), you would be able to know it’s going on and have the opportunity to react and respond asap – thats when the real-time communication plays it’s biggest, and most important role.

Awesome @laurachristianson ! That’s what I love to hear!!!

One way to circumvent problems is to manage expectations by explaining clearly the response policy. For example, I know there are some big airlines on Twitter who put it in the bio section, i.e. “We respond to tweets between 7am to 11pm EST”, so that someone can’t get offended not being responded to during night time (or whatever time it may be if you are in a different time zone).

Same applies for Facebook page or G+ account. Real-time communications are indeed what is sought after, but people will understand if you reply within 2-3 hours, specially if you are a small business and can’t be expected to have a full-time community manager on the payroll. As long as you explain it in your policy section, it should be OK.

Of course, this assumes you have a policy section… (you know, where you explain what content can be removed, i.e. offensive, religious, spam, etc.)