Interest groups also pressure public officials by organizing petition drives, letter writing and email campaigns, and phone-in efforts. A demonstration that significant numbers of voters are on your side impresses elected officials. Indeed, many public officials, especially those who are elected, are happy to support positions that seemingly command significant community backing. Indications of popular support help public officials gauge the breadth and depth of feeling on specific issues.

Interest groups frequently ask their members and supporters to mount coordinated campaigns to express their support or opposition to an issue through whatever medium is most appropriate to the situation. These efforts were traditionally based on letter-writing. Many citizens have been primed for this activity by classroom assignments that required students to write to their member of Congress or some other elected official. Increasingly, coordinated phone efforts and email have become frequent supplements to traditional letter writing campaigns.

Letter, postcard, and e-mail campaigns are stronger when supporters use their own words and their own paper. When all of the postcards appear to have been preprinted by an interest group, it conveys the impression that the senders participated only because someone else did all the work. Chain e-mails or obviously forwarded messages also tend to be unpersuasive. A successful postcard or e-mail campaign can demonstrate strength in numbers, but the numbers need to be big, and the messages real and personal, to have the desired effect.

Elected officials, however, may want evidence that what you (and your letters and emails) are asking is what the community wants, not just the goal of a narrow, intense constituency. The burden is on organizers to provide that evidence and to assure continuing support if an official takes up your cause. This is where petitions can play a critical role. Petitions are documents that usually have a short statement of position at the top, with lines below for signatures of those agreeing with the statement.

Petitions are useful tools, but when groups present petitions to public officials they should try to have as many signers in attendance as possible to reinforce the impression that the community supports the initiative in question. The presence of a large group signals that supporters are willing to invest more than the short time it takes to sign a petition. Again, it is critical to show both breadth and depth of support.