My friend had passes to a movie preview last night. We saw “Music and Lyrics,” with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. Very cute movie – not incredibly original, but funny and sweet, with a good cast and a catchy soundtrack. Two thumbs up.

This isn’t a movie review though. Last night it occurred to me that I was on the information side of word-of-mouth marketing. Usually I’m on the information-seeking side, finding out about things that are already yesterday’s news. This new position made me feel powerful somehow. This movie isn’t being released for another week, so I was one of the handful of people who saw it first. It surprised me how exciting that was. What did I do when I left the theater? I called my sister to tell her about the movie, because I think she would really like it. I didn’t do this because someone paid me, or because I would get something out of it. I did it because I had information that she didn’t have yet, and I wanted to be the one to tell her.

If you are attending a family gathering 3 states away, there is always a relative who calls everyone en route to let them know about the tunnel closing on the freeway or the exit that she missed that she doesn’t want anyone else to miss… “Make sure you look for the sign to thirty-SIXTH street, not Main. Remember, NOT Main!” Perhaps she is only trying to be helpful, which is wonderful, and you gotta love that. But some people crave that little sense of power, that sense of “I’m the one who told everyone about that.” “They had a better experience because of me.”

It seems that is the key to word-of-mouth marketing: not to think from the company’s perspective, but from the buzz-generator’s perspective. Don’t just provide them with information, but somehow make that information create that sense of power, no matter how small.

- Sarah