As a hobby blogger in the "mom" realm, I often get swamped at conferences by companies looking to market their products to women. These companies have figured out that women are online en masse and they're communicating their likes, dislikes and daily lives with friends and strangers. I applaud their initiative in trying to reach out to women on the web, but sometimes I wish they'd take a step back and think a little harder about how they approach these women.

With that in mind, I think it's essential for marketers who target women to take a trek over to Church of the Customer Blog to read Jackie Huba's latest post: "5 things you need to know about women and word of mouth."

There's no doubt word of mouth works well with women; after all, we're social creatures. None the less, there are a few subtle differences in how marketers should push word of mouth to us if they'd like us to pass things on to our friends. Jackie shares some insight and a handful of tips from Michelle Miller, co-author of "The Soccer Mom Myth: Today's Female Consumer: Who She Really Is, Why She Really Buys."

Huba starts with some stats on how women spread the word.

Most marketers read a paragraph like the one above and rejoice; they've finally found the key to getting their product in front of legions of buyers. They just need to convince some mom to blog about it.

Except...that's not quite right.

See, one of the points I push home hard when I teach about viral marketing is the need to create a campaign or offer that someone is willing to stake their own reputation on. After all, if you want them to tell their friends, you're asking them to evangelize your product. If they are evangelizing your product to someone who ends up disliking it, they risk losing credibility. While you've got to look at things from the "will they risk their reputation on it" angle for all forms of viral marketing, you have to give it extra consideration when you're trying to work via women.

Huba writes:

In other words...

Don't expect women to spread the word for you, enable their ability to do so.

Don't ask them for access to their friends and family, give them access to YOU so they can share that access.

Don't tell them what to offer or what to say, make them happy and let them create the offer or pitch themselves.

After all, women know their friends better than you do. If you impress them enough to make them want to tell their friends, they'll find a far better way to spread the word than you would have.