If you use the internet at all, chances are you’ve stumbled upon the odd marketers, social media consultants or ninjas, however they may call themselves. Currently they’re a dime a dozen. It seems like the go-to profession when people don’t know what to do.

And the holy grail of this profession is Word of Mouth Marketing. You know, recommendations you give to your friend, be it in talking or on your favorite social network. Now marketers would love to know which recommendations you give out just for monitoring and researching purposes. Knowing why you recommend something is powerful stuff which people can learn a lot from. But even more than knowing why you recommend certain stuff they’d love to change what you’ll recommend—it’s marketing, after all, and they work for a client.

But the thing most social media ninja’s and WOM-Marketers don’t understand is: recommendations are tailored, and they are privileged information.

Leo Laporte came up in the last episode with the mention of secrets. The next big thing would be secrets. Because the very act of keeping and disclosing secrets would form a social bond. I wouldn’t restrict that to secrets. It’s the case with any form of privileged information. And I’d include recommendations here. Because the very act of disclosing which products or services I use for certain tasks discloses a lot about me, my identity, etc. It is privileged information.

It is privileged information to that degree that marketers will have a hard time to get to the bottom of it, the personal recommendations that are trustworthy, as opposed to status-driven displays that most recommendations in public currently are.