After I read Adrienne Royer's latest post, "Reaching Women on the Right," I figured I'd just leave a comment. But when I started writing it out, I realized that it's worth fleshing out a bit more. So, at the risk of being a single guy without any children trying to act like I know what the heck a woman really wants (my grandpa says I never will), I want to add my two cents.

First off, all women do care about issues like illegal immigration, the War on Terror, wasteful spending, etc. I'd consider these the big ticket, stump speech issues which "move" poll numbers if the message effectively strikes the right cord.

But women, especially mommy's, also care about the very real, tangible, long tail issues that affect the lives of their family. The fact of the matter is that children are spending an increasingly large amount of their time on the Internet and parents are rightfully afraid of things in their lives which they can't control. In other words, it's the Internet, stupid.

In fact, take a look at this recent Pew Internet & American Life Project presentation presented to school psychologists at the American Psychological Association on Internet usage among families:

* 70% of American adults go online
* 93% of American teens ages 12 to 17 use the internet
* 87% of all parents online
* 73% of all families have broadband @ home
* 68% of online Americans have home broadband
* 7% of teens do not use the internet

So while a candidate stumping broadly about "education" or his wife posting recipes on her blog is great and all, what mommy's really need to hear about are the niche issues that actually matter in their modern lives.

Those issues include things like cyberbullying, privacy concerns to avert online sexual predators, and violence in video games and on TV. Let's take a look at the issue of cyberbullying a bit more closely.

The presentation I cited above includes these statistics on cyberbullying:

* 32% of online teens have been contacted online by a complete stranger.

* Teens with social networking profiles are more likely to have been contacted.
- Of teens who have been contacted, 23% say they were made scared or uncomfortable by the stranger contact.
- Girls are more likely to report feeling scared or uncomfortable.

* 32% of online teens have experience some form of online harassment, also called cyberbullying:
-Threatening messages
-Private material forwarded without permission
-Someone posting an embarrassing picture of you online
-Spreading a rumor about you online

Scary stuff. Our kids are online and their being targeted by unwanted solicitations and threats.

Unfortunately, most mommy's won't see the messages they need to see on TV at the end of the campaign because they're not big ticket, blanket issues that "move numbers." I get that. We live in a world with limited resources.

So that's where the modern media folks come in. Let us craft some language and create some web videos and then take Adrienne's advice to find smarter, more effective streams to disseminate that message through.

So how do we do this on the modern campaign trail?

When I worked as the communications director for Mike Bouchard for Michigan in 2006, one of Bouchard's top accomplishments was creating Michigan's sex offender registry as a state legislator. Our media team, Scott Howell & Company, created this solid TV spot which aired early in the campaign (before I was a part of the team), when they were in the process of introducing Mike Bouchard to Michigan voters:

Clearly this was a powerful message but it had had a very short shelf-life because it was a spot which only aired on TV.

Not on my watch. When I joined the campaign in late August, I asked for electronic copies of all of the TV spots we had run so that I could put them up on YouTube.

In one of our kitchen cabinet meetings to discuss polling, we saw that our opponent's strongest strengths were with women voters. So when I saw this video, I recognized an opportunity to try and shore up that support.

The communications team helped put together a full-fledged plan to help curb online sexual predators and we created a micro-site, MISafeSpace.com (currently offline), to help amplify Mike's plan and provide tips to parents to help keep their children safe online.

We, of course, posted Mike's video on the site alongside it.

Ultimately, we lost the race in Michigan, but it wasn't from a lack of trying really, really hard. And even then, we recognized the importance of driving targeted messages using modern techniques and avenues.

To conclude, women are just like you and me. They care about the issues that matter most to them and their families. If we're going to beat Hillary in 2008 our respective nominee needs to be out-in-front on these issues before it's too late.

A few months ago, Morra Aarons at techPresident and Blogher started a discussion about women and political blogging. At first I rolled my eyes and cited a few statistics from Pew and IPDI about men and women using the web for the same activities at equal rates. Then the NYT Caucus Blog delved into the topic a bit more. Earlier this week, I took a more irreverent stab at it, but some of the comments at the NYT have a point.

Men and women are using the Internet at the same rate for gathering news, sharing videos, checking e-mail and blogging. We know what people are doing online, but do we know why?

There's a perception problem that far more men are engaged in online politics. Sairy at Blogher does a rundown of leading women, but note that most are grouped together at sites like Blogher or specific policy issues. Women are engaged online, but in different places than political blogs. They're hanging out at mommyblogs, feminist websites, cancer support groups and craft forums. While the focus of these blogs and forums may not be political, their insights and topics reflect what women encounter in their daily lives, and politics play a major role. They care less about the horserace and more about the big-picture issues.

What does this mean for campaigns? We've understood this in the media for a long time. There's a reason why candidates and their spouses share cookie recipes, tour the country talking about education and fight for the covers of women's magazines. Female voters respond to these efforts, yet web communication is still one-size-fits-all.

Elizabeth Edwards gained the favor of Democratic women a long time ago with her involvement on the web. She and Hillary took in rave reviews for stopping by the Blogher conference while everyone else failed to have a presence. What about Republicans? Yesterday, the Romney campaign launched AnnRomney.com and is on the right track. There's also Jerigirls.com, started by female Thompson supporters and devoted to all things Jeri Thompson. Does it take a female web director, like Mindy Finn at the Romney campaign, or a dedicated female supporters to reach women on the web?

Blogger outreach and community building are more important than ever. Women aren't going to pick up on the blow-by-blow updates that political blogs cover, yet they will discuss them when it relates to the issues that they care about. They enjoy policy discussions when there's a human interest angle. They don't want soft news, but more interesting packages of news that are deserve our valuable time. If you're still confused, realize that Madison Avenue has spent the past 100 years and billions of dollars trying to grasp how women think.

I can't emphasize the impact of community enough. Mommyblogging started when moms connected with each other through their blogs. Free Republic has recipe threads, and iVillage hosts thousands of message boards. We think about the web in flat, equal terms with every blog or web site connected through a series of social networks or blogrolls. In reality, especially with women, the web is a group of clusters ranging from Blogher to neighborhood listserves like Capitol Hill Mommies. Finding these clusters and understanding how your candidate and his or her issues fit into them can make the difference.

We do this with outreach. Why did Hillary speak at a hairdresser convention? She went where her supporters where. It's time to mimic this on the web.

With the most basic software, it's possible to target the female vote, but it takes time, staff resources, a bit of creativity and the willingness to try to understand women.