I’m afraid to tweet something during the chat because people may not agree or may get mad at me. What do I do?

Don’t be afraid to say what you feel. You’d be surprised at how many people are probably thinking the same thing. No one will get mad at you for having an opinion, especially if it sparks discussion. The #avtweeps community is very supportive. We like talking rather than yelling.

There is, however, one way to irk the group and that is to try and sell or market something to us during the chat. So the absolute #1 ground rule is: no soliciting!

-Excerpt From Linda Frembes’ #AVchat FAQs

Okay.

But I’m still afraid of #AVchats; mostly I don’t want to step on toes and/or be judged harshly for an isolated lapse in thought.

That’s actually a healthy fear, in my opinion. Can I expound upon that opinion slightly by saying we’d all be better off if all of us #AVtweeps practiced that same fear?

And actually, it’s not just related to #AVchats; it’s related to the digital era and social media in general. It just happened to shine like a beacon after the official end of last Thursday’s Twitter chat when minor violations erupted in arguing, chastising and digital punches to the gut (if you missed it, you’re not going to get a play-by-play here. Sorry. But you can read the transcript online, although the end was where most of what I’m talking about here happened, and it’s cut off).

I have two points I want to make with this write-up:

1. Social media’s bane and blessing is that it allows us to showcase how human we are, while also giving us the opportunity to show the group what we have to offer one another.

2. Social media should NEVER mitigate professionalism.

Oh, and in the interest of full disclosure: I work at rAVe [Publications] as a Digital Media Strategist and I participated in the Cinco de Mayo #AVchat using the Twitter handle @rAVeSMB.

We love social media because we get to see a side of individuals and companies that aren’t as apparent offline. Social media gives us the chance to be blunt or tactless or tacky or smart or scared or friends (#AVtweepsUnite). Sometimes, we air out our words like dirty laundry on blogs and Twitter like it’s cute or funny–and sometimes it is–because at the end of the day, we’re human beings.

I’m okay with the casual nature of digital media tools — except when we use them at the expense of our professionalism. When I say professionalism, I’m talking about attitudes or codes of conduct and values that dictate the way we interact with colleagues and also what we expect from our colleagues in return. R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

The topic of Thursday’s #AVchat was, according to moderator Linda Frembes (@AVwriter), “#InfoComm11 – tips, classes [and] what not to miss.”

We discussed those topics: everything from seminars and training sessions of interest to QR codes and how to make the press’s job easier during the show.

But.

We also discussed things that, to an extent, were extraneous to the main topic and at the same time mostly violated the “absolute #1 ground rule”: classes were pushed by employees of the companies presenting, there was bragging about free swag offered at certain booths, products were surreptitiously pushed, tweetups were discussed, and my company, rAVe [Publications] pushed our InfoCommGame2 promotion.

The important thing, though, is that if you look at the transcripts posted online, the #AVchat discussion didn’t seem that polarized and scandalous. In fact, lots of conversation, discussion and hype about InfoComm11 sprang up in direct relation to most of the violations. You could actually feel people get energized.

That’s a good thing. And in my opinion (and according to my interpretation of the FAQ’s quoted above), most were fairly legal things — or at least they teetered innocently along the lines like a cute, uncoordinated kid playing hopscotch.

So then what excuse do we have when the end of what seemed like a successful chat ended in intimidation, bullying and arguing?

If we all followed the #1 ground rule for #AVchat, we’d eliminate 99 percent of the opportunities for toes to get stepped on. But the reality is that we only follow that ground rule 75 percent of the time, and at the end of the day, contributions to an #AVchat session are about opinions regarding controversial facts–not the other way around.

And for the most part, we base our opinions largely on our own experiences. You wouldn’t talk about classes that you don’t have a self interest in. You wouldn’t discuss products that you don’t care about. What happens, then, when the classes and products you’re interested in happen to be ones in which there is a possible conflict of interest?

I don’t have the exact answers, but I think it might have something to do with “rolling with the punches” as they’re dealt and maintaining an attitude of professionalism.

What I do know is that a momentary lapse in judgment by an individual and/or individuals can reflect poorly on the entire industry, especially if that lapse in judgment is met with venom and not support. The lapses in judgment reflect poorly on the industry even more so when individuals are able to hide behind their online personalities to justify their actions on all sides.

That happened during Thursday’s #AVchat. The fact that we have online personas and Twitter handles doesn’t excuse of from the responsibility we have to stand behind what we say.

Sometimes it’s refreshing to hear bluntness, sometimes it’s nice to hear people “telling it like it is.” But, honesty and bluntness and personality (ego) should never be an excuse for rudeness. I don’t care what kind of an “expert” you are.

And a lot of us were guilty, including rAVe.

Oh, and a word to the wise: if you feel yourself so peeved about something that you just have to speak your mind, please take it offline. Know when to fight battles and know when to walk away. Ask yourself if you were all physically in a room together what you would do or say. Maybe that should be the #1 ground rule.

Once upon a time I wrote an article about the industry’s first-ever #AVchat.

I wrote that article because I thought it was important move in AV. Several #AVchats later (not to understate the value of interim chats) and I’m moved to write again about another pivotal event that we need to think about: professionalism in a digital era.

At this point, I’m a bit afraid of #AVchats because I don’t want to step on toes; for us all, erring on the side of professionalism is a good first step. Let me know what you think in the comments, or email me at nc@ravepubs.com.