So I’m sure you’ve seen those ads for losing weight if you “Obey 1 simple rule”

I’m honestly not sure how anyone believes that these two women are the same person.  In any case if you didn’t realize they were a scam, Please read all about them on CNN and also take a look at what Oprah and Rachel Ray had to say about their supposed affiliation.

What interests me however is how the ads have changed. They take the original ads and “stamp” them with an “Acai Berry Diet exposed” graphic (see below right). Then lead them to a “consumer Report” site like news15tv.com of “WSVT-TV New York” that’s curiously “not affiliated with any news publication.” “Jill Rivers,” an “investigative reporter” is doing a series called “Diet Trends: A look at America’s Top Diets” where they “examine consumer tips for dieting during a recession.” She found out the “truth” about Acai diets. Most of them are scams, but, Jill reports, this other Acai Berry diet is totally reputable and totally worked for me. Don’t trust these scam sites. Trust Jill Rivers the investigative, non-partial reporter.

To attempt to add to its authenticity the site grabs a weather widget from Accuweather.com, displays embedded YouTube videos of several actual news sites talking at least briefly about Acai Berry diets, and waves a whole bunch of logos at you. And of course adds heartfelt comments from people who were skeptical, but have now seen the light.  Unfortunately the comments “have been closed due to spam.”  My favorites are the one from “Marco” who’s concerned about fitting into his wedding dress, and from Thomas who says, “Hey Jill, i just signed up and added you to my Twitter, cant wait to share my progress. thanks again, Amy xoxoxo”  Thomas seems to be very affectionate when Amy takes over.

I think it “legally” meets the criteria of showing itself as an advertisement, because it has the word “advertisement” in the header, but so small that no one will notice it (I know I missed it at first). And the page ends with a whole bunch of legalese saying that they’re not actually affiliated with and their actions aren’t condoned by any of the news organizations whose logos appear on their site.

Despite the horrors of deception and wanton abuse of all human decency, I think there’s a lot to learn here.

I’m obviously not advocating you set up a fake site (newsy or otherwise) that tricks people into believing you’re more reputable than you are.

What peaks my interest is how these Scamming spammers (Scpammers?) have listened to the prevailing winds of the community and not only changed their tactics, but flipped it on its head. How do you gain credibility when everyone thinks you’re a liar? Well if you’re a liar you lie some more by creating a fake news site and duping the unsuspecting public into believing that your product is reputable while all the others are scams.

If you’re not a liar, you listen to what the community says and take a long hard look at your product and your company and work your butt off to try to regain the community’s respect. There are two things that should be in common between these Scpammers and your company.

1. That you listen to your customers and potential customers. If you flick them off or ignore them, no one wins. They lose a great product/service and you lose a group of customers that have already shown themselves to be rather vocal and influential.
2. That you turn bad PR/comments/reviews into a win for yourself. This usually means hard choices and hearing things you’d rather not, but everyone, you and your customer, will be better for it.

So obey one simple rule: Listen to your customers (and that’s no scpam).

UPDATE: Acai Berry Diet Exposed image changed to a version with the same women as the first image.

UPDATE2: Oprah has filed a lawsuit against some of these marketers

We’ve just published a new, totally free white paper entitled Measuring Social Media. Head on over to serengeticom.com to learn how to measure social media and why it’s important.

If you haven’t caught Li Evans post on Understanding Social Media Communities over at Search Engine Watch.  She’s got some great thoughts on how marketers should (and shouldn’t) approach online communities.

As I type this post on my phone, I’m currently standing outside the DMV waiting in a line that would enable me to get into another line inside the DMV. It’s about 90 degrees outside and it’s looking like I have at least a two hour wait in front of me.

As one could imagine, it was a pleasant surprise when three teenagers hopped out of the back of a pickup truck with handfuls of bottled water.

“Hey, we’re from Curry Auto,” the tallest one calmly announced to the crowd while pointing to the auto service center across the street. “Would anyone like a bottle of water?”

I can’t think of a better possible marketing campaign than providing a free, helpful service to a targetted and localized demographic. Moreover, it’s a clever way to positively introduce a brand to customers that would normally associate it with the hassle of a broken car. It’s a fantastic way to build a relationship with a new customer base.

*Note: just had to take a one hour break because I was told that my second form of ID was insufficient. There has to be a better way to administer driver’s licenses, no?

If you want to succeed in search engines, find a relevant audience and do something that helps them in a real and meaningful way.

Then give it to them for free.

*Note: after 90 minutes of waiting, I have been told that the camera processing system is down and i’m going home without a license. I wish I was making this up.

I’m pretty sure I had a point to make about reputation, brand management, and doing right by your customers, but I think the Virginia DMV just made it for me.

Serengeti Communications is hosting a dinner featuring Charlene Li as the guest speaker during SES San Jose this year and you can have an opportunity to win 1 of 2 seats we are giving away for the dinner.

What’s the catch?

Well, we’re looking for two companies who manage the most vendors to help them get their online marketing strategies accomplished.  So if you have one company to do your PPC, another for SEO, someone else to handle your online PR and yet another company to do Social Media or Analytics, we want to hear from you!  The form is really simple to fill out, we just want to know how many vendors you work with and for what (not who they are).  We’re curious as to the average number of vendors that one company has to deal with to handle their online marketing initiatives.

The two companies with the most vendors will be our winners.  If there are several companies who have the same number, we’ll put them into a fishbowl and have a drawing.  We’ll be announcing the winners on Friday August 7th, so spread the word!  If you are coming to San Jose for Search Engine Strategies or even live in the area and run your business from around San Jose, let us know about how you manage your online marketing strategies!

Win A Seat at a Private Dinner Featuring Charlene Li