We’re gearing a client up for a tradeshow so I’ve been thinking and reading quite a bit about them lately. I keep coming back to a memory of one particular company I met at Dreamforce 2 years ago as the prime example of what not to do on the expo floor.

I had my vendor list all planned out and I knew I needed to visit two of the eSignature companies booths. I’d done some research on both companies but still had some very specific questions I needed answered. I visited eSignature company 1 and got great information and just really enjoyed the booth staff. They were friendly, knowledgable, and seemed genuinely happy to be there. Plus they could do everything I needed – and more.

I wondered around and found eSignature company 2.

Let me start by saying this particular company had the cutest screaming flying monkey tchotchkes. We picked some up from them the year before and they turned out to be the hit of the office so I wanted to grab one for my daughter during this trip.

Their booth was dead quiet, no expo attendees in their 10×10 space – sweet I can get both reps undivided attention, this should be great. I walked up and both the man and woman working the booth had arms folded across their chests and just stared at me. I stood there and stared back for a few awkward moments and finally said “Hi, I’m Heather – can you guys answer some questions for me?” and I kid you not the man nodded towards his rack of marketing material and said “You can grab some of those and if you still have questions you can come back.” Woah. Woah. Did that really just happen?  Oh, but it gets better. I grabbed their single sheet of material which was just a brief regurgitation of the website. Disappointed I told him I’d read all this already and had some specific questions about his product. His reaction was a long sigh so I told him forget it – I’m going with eSignature company 1.

But I still had to get my monkey. I ended up sending my colleague over to grab one for me because I couldn’t stand to talk to those people again – and they were just as rude to her.

All of this happened over 2 years ago – with employees who likely don’t even work for the company anymore, but that experience still sums up the way I feel about that company. I’ve avoided them as a solution for my clients and probably always will. eSignature company 1 is a little more expensive – but its a price I’m willing to pay to be treated well and to know my clients always will be as well.

Yep. I’m a slacker. I start a new job and stop posting. I’m just a no good, lazy person. You should totally unsubscribe and start reading someone that actually posts content or something.

So, here’s a little teaser about something that will most likely be done this month. A while back, before all this new job stuff got going, I had the chance to interview a writer for Career Builder. One of the guys that gets posted to the front page of MSN quite a bit. I wanted to take a peek into their SEO training and level of knowledge. Its pretty interesting stuff, combining journalism with the Web. I think there are some pretty common ideas out there that to do good SEO you have to sacrifice good content, but we all know that’s just not true, right? So, look for that in the next week or so.

Also, I’m doing a total revamp of the Website at the new job, so I’ll be tracking some of my wins and losses with that for you guys.

In the mean time, don’t delete me, please! I promise I’ll be back in full force before ya know it!

• Thanks Vertical Response, I didn’t feel like sending my emails today anyway. #

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• I’m back, settling into my new gig, lots of work lined up for me here! #
• anyone know of a quick way to de-dup all Salesforce leads? #

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• Started the new job on Monday, its going to be a while before I can start up the twittering again, so busy! #

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• hah, SuperNews Twouble with Twits http://tinyurl.com/dxny4y #
• Hi @vonster, your icon scares me so much I had to follow you! #
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• Stop chopping the top of my head off, Twitter! #
• http://twitpic.com/29x2l – Finally, I took a picture in my awesome Sitemasher shirt! #
• Oh now that is so much better #

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Wow, so I always assumed I had just a small little handful of readers out there, feeling lucky when I got a few legit comments here and there. I never really kept up with how many folks subscribed to my blog through RSS feed. I know, I know, bad me. I just didn’t really care too much about how many people were reading what I write at this point. I write for me, its good practice and I enjoy it. I don’t write for popularity.

So, I was shocked when I checked out my RSS stats today and found out that just since last month I have about 250 subscribers! I didn’t know you were all out there, reading, anxiously awaiting my next post, refreshing your Google reader over and over…

What’s that? You weren’t really all that interested in what I post and when? Ok, fine. But I’m going to pretend you were, cause maybe I do want to be just a little bit popular in this whole social media world.

Anyway, thanks so much for subscribing and reading, I’d love to get more comments and conversations out of you all now that I know you’re here, but I won’t ask for a miracle.