Lauren McDonald, Ashley Pollard, and Vanessa WatsonDec. 1, 2015

Communication Audit

Table of Contents Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………. 1

Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………. 2

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………. 4

Methodology………………………………………………………………………………… 6

Audit Diary……………………………………………………………………………………. 8

Results………………………………………………………………………………………….. 9

Conclusions and Recommendations……………………………………………… 15

Appendix………………………………………………………………………………………. 19

Page 1 of 30

Executive SummaryThe following is a summary of findings from the communication audit conducted by Vanessa

Watson, Ashley Pollard, and Lauren McDonald for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s

chapter of Movement of Youth.

General consensus is that communication is good

When asked about the effectiveness of UNC Movement of Youth’s communication, most

survey participants believed that communication within Movement of Youth and outside of the

organization is effective. When asked further questions, the participants found minor faults in the

organization’s communication. UNC Movement of Youth’s communication is good, but it could

be better. There is room for great improvement.

Communication Challenges

The organization is working with younger people who do not communicate well. UNC

Movement of Youth has to find effective ways to communicate with their students. If social

media is supposed to target younger people, then UNC Movement of Youth has to have ways to

tailor the social media sites to effectively reach younger people.

UNC Movement of Youth’s social media sites are new. There will not be much content in

the beginning. The organization has to overcome this and create posts specifically for its target

audience. The parents of mentees must be included in the target audience as well, and

communication with parents must be changed so that it is also more effective.

Finding ways to keep mentors and mentees informed

Although the executive team responds well to emails, not all students wish to receive

communication via email. Different ways to inform members of upcoming activities and events

Page 2 of 30

should be considered. Because mentees are between grades 6 and 11, communication strategies

to inform them will be slightly different. UNC Movement of Youth must take into consideration

the age of its target audience when attempting to communicate. If one person does not feel that

they have adequate time to process and prepare information after receiving it, then there has to

be improvement in that area. There is always room for growth in internal and external

communication. Not every survey participant believed that the effectiveness of UNC Movement

of Youth’s communication is the best that it can be.

Finding ways to keep the community informed

Because UNC Movement of Youth is in its building stages as a campus organization, not

many in the Carolina Community have heard of its mission. UNC Movement of Youth must

induce methods to publicize itself to the community if it wishes to flourish as a legitimate

campus organization. One problem the company faces is that UNC Movement of Youth is not an

open program. Mentors are all students in a specific class at UNC-Chapel Hill. Finding ways to

open the mentorship program to a wider range of volunteers will help build a communal

awareness of the company. UNC Movement of Youth also has a poor social media presence.

This also contributes to the lack of awareness about the organization within the Carolina

Community. UNC Movement of Youth must determine ways to keep the public informed and

get them engaged in the program.

In this audit, our team will work with the issues that were stated above, elaborate on the

problems the company is facing, and make suggestions on how to fix these problems. The team

analyzed the information received from UNC Movement of Youth and attempted to give the best

possible recommendations for the advancement of UNC Movement of Youth’s communication.

Page 3 of 30

IntroductionMovement of Youth is a company that focuses on preparing diverse youth to lead and

succeed late in life. The company does this through a mentorship program led by college

students on various campuses. The program works to address the educational and social needs of

underrepresented youth through the mentorship of college students around the United States.

Movement of Youth was founded in 2006 by Atrayus Goode, who was a junior at UNC- Chapel

Hill at the time. Movement of Youth focuses on helping the “average” middle and high school

students. These students must be in the top 50 percent of their class. The company defines

“average” as those students with a GPA between 2.0 and 2.9. The company derives this mission

focus from a study conducted by Sheila Rosenblum (1990) that stated, “those considered

‘average’ often receive an unchallenging, watered-down curriculum that fails to prepare them for

post-secondary education or to enter the workforce.”

UNC Movement of Youth is a branch of the Movement of Youth company on UNC-

CH’s campus. In the past, UNC Movement of Youth had combined with surrounding branches of

Movement of Youth for events. The Movement of Youths at Duke University, University of

North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina Central University, although they had

different names, could be identified together. Recently the Movement of Youth organization

decided to separate each of these programs and identify each as separate entities on the various

campuses. This separation created the need for UNC Movement of Youth to now have its own

programs and social media sites. The site has emails going out that are only internal and do not

involve the surrounding Movement of Youth sites. The reason for this audit is to help UNC

Movement of Youth decided what communication will be most effective for the group as it

begins heading in a new direction as a college organization. Although the group has been around

Page 4 of 30

for a few years, it has not had its own separate network. This audit will evaluate past

communication efforts made by the site and by Movement of Youth in order to determine the

direction UNC Movement of Youth should take.

Methodology Page 5 of 30

The communication audit for UNC Movement of Youth consisted of a survey, an

interview and observations of past materials provided by the company. The survey was sent to

mentors and UNC Movement of Youth executive staff. The survey asked questions about UNC

Movement of Youth’s internal and external communication. Questions were asked about the

effectiveness of UNC Movement of Youth’s internal and external communications, specifically

targeting the various communications that the organization currently uses. In addition to

inquiring about current communication efforts by the company, the survey also asked

participants what could be changed about these communications. The survey also included

several open ended questions that allowed participants to make suggestions as to how UNC

Movement of Youth can work to strengthen its internal and external communications.

An interview was also conducted with the UNC Movement of Youth site director, Kelsey

Williams. The interview consisted of about 16 questions focused on the status of the company’s

internal and external communication. Questions for the interview were targeted to assess the

consistency of communication technique with its target audience. Questions were also asked to

gage the clarity and tone of the company’s messages.  

Observations of both Movement of Youth and UNC Movement of Youth’s previous

communication materials were taken in order to assess the status of current communication and

determine what can be done to improve current efforts. Materials such as fliers, letterheads,

emails, press releases, business cards, and brochures were provided by the company for the

purposes of this audit. The information gathered from these observations were used to analyze

the effectiveness of UNC Movement of Youth’s communication and provide a basis on which to

judge how the UNC-CH site can move forward and improve communication on campus.

Page 6 of 30

In addition to observations made of the marketing materials Lucas provided, this team

also watched the UNC Movement of Youth social media accounts to assess the effectiveness of

the company’s social media presence. The UNC Movement of Youth site has its own social

media, separate from Movement of Youth.

The methodology used in this audit helped reveal areas of UNC Movement of Youth’s

communication techniques that need improvement. The methodology used in the interview and

survey processes served to allow employees to make suggestions on how to expand the

company’s communication on campus. The results of the methodology for this audit are located

in the results and recommendations sections of this report.

Page 7 of 30

Audit DiaryThe survey that analyzed the internal and external communication of Movement of Youth

was collected over the course of a week. The survey was created through the Qualtrics system

and the link was distributed to mentors and members of UNC Movement of Youth’s executive

staff via email. The survey consisted of 17 questions. These questions were a mixture of multiple

choice and short answer style. The survey was sent to the marketing director and the site director

of UNC Movement of Youth via email. Both executive members emailed the survey to staff and

mentors. An appropriate number of results were received from this form within a week. The

results from this survey assisted in conducting the analysis of the current status of UNC

Movement of Youth’s communication strategy and how it can be improved.

An in-person interview was conducted with the site director of UNC Movement of

Youth, Kelsey Williams, on Monday, Sept. 23, 2015. Williams was asked questions that were

more complex than those included on the survey, she completed this interview with substantial

answers. The answers given by Williams were evaluated and taken into consideration when

conducting the analysis of UNC Movement of Youth’s communicational strengths and

weaknesses.

The marketing director of UNC Movement of Youth, Kamaara Lucas, provided

previously used Movement of Youth communication materials for the purpose of this audit.

Lucas emailed the materials to members of this audit team on, Sept. 3, 2015. These materials

were compiled into a folder on Google Docs and members of this audit team were granted access

to the materials. The team used these materials for observation and the information gathered

from each document allowed for this team to assess the status of UNC Movement of Youth’s

communication strategy.

Page 8 of 30

ResultsThrough the administration of the 17 question survey we were able to have a better

understanding of the overall internal (emails, staff meeting, etc.) and external (newsletters,

flyers, etc.) communication within UNC Movement of Youth. Overall there were some areas for

improvement based on the results of the internal and external communication questions. For

internal communication three responded that the communication was “Effective” while three

reported that it was “Very Effective.” This shows that there is room for improvement of internal

communication within UNC Movement of Youth. With regards to external communication

within UNC Movement of Youth there was even more room for improvement. Four of the

respondents stated the external communication was “Effective” while two said that it was “Very

Effective.” Ideally everyone would have responded “Very Effective” for both internal and

external communication showing that there is room for improvement.

To learn more about the specific internal communication challenges facing UNC

Movement of Youth we asked how informed the employee felt after receiving internal

communication from UNC Movement of Youth such as mass distributed UNC Movement of

Youth emails. Three responded that they felt “Informed” after receiving a UNC Movement of

Youth email while three reported feeling “Very Informed” after reading a UNC Movement of

Youth email. This shows that overall the internal communication via email is effective within

UNC Movement of Youth. Employees are able to understand what is going on within the

organization through UNC Movement of Youth emails. This tells us that this is one area that will

not need as much improvement as others. While ideally we would like for everyone to find the

UNC Movement of Youth emails leaving them “Very Informed” the fact that most are informed

to very informed is a good sign of effective internal communication.

Page 9 of 30

One of the biggest weaknesses within UNC Movement of Youth is its social media

presence. Based on observation of its Twitter and Instagram our team was able to see that the

communication is lacking in this area. First, they do not have many followers on Twitter and

Instagram. Movement of Youth recently divided into university chapters, whereas before

Movement of Youth was one large organization with multiple campus locations. Today, each

campus is its own chapter. It was not very well advertised or promoted that Movement of Youth

was dividing into smaller campus chapters. Therefore, the UNC Movement of Youth does not

have a very strong social media presence. While the Movement of Youth twitter account has 367

followers the UNC Movement of Youth twitter account has only 122 followers. This shows that

the twitter presence for UNC Movement of Youth is very weak and needs to be promoted better

within the organization. While UNC Movement of Youth does have a Facebook page it is private

and only open to individuals with UNC-CH email addresses. Therefore this is likely a place

where employees and mentors can communicate with one another. However by having this

requirement it prevents mentees from being involved on the Facebook site which could be a

problem when trying to communicate with teenagers. The largest social media presence UNC

Movement of Youth has is on Instagram. UNC Movement of Youth has 168 followers on

Instagram more than Twitter and Facebook combined.

When evaluating the UNC Movement of Youth social media presence we asked “In what

areas can UNC Movement of Youth strengthen their social media presence?” One employee

responded, “Posts at least twice a week. More real live time pictures of Saturday Academy

sessions/meetings/etc. We should use social media to get others excited about the work we are

doing!” Another employee suggested, “Posting more and give some incentives for people to

want to follow.” One suggestion that was alarming and showed how little is known within the

Page 10 of 30

UNC Movement of Youth about social media employee recommended creating an Instagram

account, which already exists and has the largest social media following of all UNC Movement

of Youth accounts.

The survey included an open-ended question asking participants in what ways UNC

Movement of Youth could change to improve its communications. Several participants

commented that communication with mentees needs to be strengthened in some way. Later in the

survey a question was asked to gage in what ways UNC Movement of Youth could establish

better communication with its student members. In response to this question participants

suggested the following: text responses, exchanging phone numbers, reaching out on social

media, and reaching mentees in age appropriate ways (such as the social media forms Snapchat

and Twitter). This section showed that UNC Movement of Youth need to work to facilitate better

communication between its mentees and mentors. One participant said they believe mentees and

their parents may feel intimidated when contacting the mentors, and thus choose not to do so. If

this inference is true, that poses a problem. Mentees and their parents should feel comfortable

reaching out to the company. This shows the need for new lines of communication between

mentors, mentees, and mentees’ parents.

Interview with Kelsey Williams, UNC Movement of Youth Site Director

On Monday, Sept. 21 2015, a member of our team sat down with UNC-CH senior

communications major and UNC Movement of Youth site director, Kelsey Williams. Williams

has been with UNC Movement of Youth for a couple of years. As site director, Williams has

monthly conference calls with other campus university site directors to find out what is working

or is not working at its chapters. These calls are meant to increase open communication within

chapters and prevent similar mistakes from being made in the future. When asked where she

Page 11 of 30

believed the biggest disconnect was within UNC Movement of Youth, Williams explained her

concern over the communication between mentors and parents. While the mentors reach out to

their mentees on a regular basis and the parents are contacted by the executive board in regard to

activities and to be informed as to what their student is doing there is a lack of communication

between the mentors and the parents. Williams would like for this to be changed and for mentors

and parents to have an open dialogue and reach out to one another to stay informed and help their

student.

The current process for mentors to meet their mentees is through email; however, given

that the students are in grades 6 through 11, email is not the most effective way to reach them in

a timely manner. Many of the students do not check their emails regularly so that makes it

difficult for them to respond and meet their mentors. The mentors are also given the student's cell

phone number, but some mentors have reported that they did not receive any response to their

introductory messages. This is where Williams believes the communication between mentors and

parents will lead to a more successful introduction. Rather than reaching out and waiting to hear

from the student if they mentor were to email or call the parents they would be more likely to

receive a response and be able to schedule a time to meet with their mentee and introduce

themselves. This will also open the line of communication between the mentors and the parents

for future communication.

Another area where Williams saw room for improvement was in the creation of a site

manual. Currently there is not a site manual for all of the Movement of Youth chapters to follow

when creating its chapter website. Within the next few weeks every Movement of Youth chapter

will have its own website. In order to remain consistent and keep the content clear and with the

correct message Williams believes a site manual needs to be created. The goal of the site manual

Page 12 of 30

will be to establish basic standards for all Movement of Youth chapter sites. The need for

consistency across all Movement of Youth is extremely important as they form new Movement

of Youth chapters. Currently Williams does not believe the mission statement is displayed on

enough materials for Movement of Youth. Therefore with the creation of the site manual the

mission statement can be clearly expressed on all Movement of Youth chapter websites.

Williams also mentioned that along with the launch of the new Movement of Youth chapter

websites, Movement of Youth would like to create an app that makes it easier for mentors/

mentees to find out about opportunities, check in for Saturday Academies and communicate with

one another.

The launch of the chapter Movement of Youth sites will be great in helping both internal

and external communication within UNC Movement of Youth. Currently, Williams shared that

UNC Movement of Youth is using a Google Doc to communicate with one another and record

ideas and new information. The Google doc has become unorganized and it is difficult for

executive members to find information. Hopefully with the creation of a site manual and UNC

Movement of Youth site this will make communication easier amongst executive members.

For the first time this semester UNC Movement of Youth is having all mentors enroll in a

sociology course taught by a UNC-CH professor and member of the UNC Movement of Youth

Board of Directors. This course is for all mentors and even the executive members are enrolled

in the course. This course has a large focus on participation, therefore in order to succeed in the

course students must be active and attend Saturday Academy as well as communicate with their

mentees. It is unclear whether or not having the mentors all participate in a course will be

beneficial for UNC Movement of Youth or detrimental. One concern is that by having all

mentors enroll in the course it is preventing those who may want to be mentors but do not have

Page 13 of 30

the room to take the mandatory course. Another potential problem is that not many students

know about UNC Movement of Youth and the opportunities it presents to both mentors and

mentees. Most of the current mentors learned about UNC Movement of Youth through word of

mouth. With the executive board about to graduate in the spring they need to find replacements

for all executive members by January so they can begin training them for the fall 2016 semester.

Page 14 of 30

Conclusion and Recommendations

Strengths

    UNC Movement of Youth is a student-run organization on UNC-CH’s campus. Because

the nature of campus involvement and the prestige of the university, UNC Movement of Youth

has a great opportunity to acquire interested and qualified volunteers. The company could

advertise for mentors at UNC-CH’s FallFest, an event conducted at the beginning of each year at

which campus organizations advertise for new members. By creating a listserv for interested

candidates UNC Movement of Youth will have the opportunity to engage with mentors with a

variety of social, economic, and educational backgrounds, thus adding to the diversity of the

company.

UNC Movement of Youth is a branch within the larger company Movement of Youth.

UNC Movement of Youth can use the connections with Movement of Youth to attract student

volunteers. The connection to a more established company will assist UNC Movement of Youth

in establishing itself as a legitimate student organization on UNC-CH’s campus. Connections

with off-campus organizations are also appealing to students who are looking to make

connections for future job opportunities, as well as those looking to work with the company

following their graduation from the university.

During the survey, participants were asked how well they feel the company has done in

communicating within itself. Each participant mentioned the strength of UNC Movement of

Youth’s emails. Comments ranged from praise about the timeliness of each email to the plethora

of information provided in each email. Participants also commented that emails were sent out on

such a consistent basis that one could accurately “predict” when they would receive emails from

the organization. Consistency, timeliness, and information are all key aspects involved in

Page 15 of 30

keeping communication with one’s audience. UNC Movement of Youth has proven to excel at

keeping contact with its mentors and executive team through email.

Participants of the survey were also asked questions concerning the consistency of

communication within the organization. While many comments referred to the excellent quality

of company emails, several comments referred to the communication among the executive board.

Participants mentioned having several different contacts for each member including their emails,

phone numbers and a GroupMe message. Having multiple means by which to contact a member

of an organization is extremely important in case of emergency situations. After analyzing the

various contacts members of UNC Movement of Youth have with one another, it is evident that

the organization ensures member contact.

Weaknesses

    As a separate site, UNC Movement of Youth has its own Twitter and Instagram accounts.

After analyzing the accounts this team found that UNC Movement of Youth currently has a weak

social media presence. During the survey, participants were asked to suggest ways in which

UNC Movement of Youth could improve its communications and a few participants suggested

creating an Instagram and Twitter. These comments are troubling because the participants of the

survey are members of the organization, and for them to not even know the company has its own

accounts exemplifies the weak presence UNC Movement of Youth currently holds on social

media.

    One question asked on the survey inquired of whether or not UNC Movement of Youth

submits clear and consistent messages to its target audience. A few participants replied

“Sometimes” to this question. This is a problem because communication with one’s target

Page 16 of 30

audience should always be very clear and come on a consistent basis. Messages to the target

audience should have no ambiguity.

    According to the survey, the biggest problem UNC Movement of Youth is currently

facing is facilitating communication between the mentors and their mentees/mentee’s parents.

This problem stems from the form of communication in which the mentors attempt to use to

connect with mentees. UNC Movement of Youth asks that mentors and mentees exchange email

address by which to reach one another. However, email has proven to be a difficult means of

communication with the middle and high school aged students.

Opportunities

    Through increasing its social media presence on both Instagram and Twitter UNC Movement

of Youth will have the opportunity to implement hashtags with each post. Hashtags are great

avenues to draw attention to events, ideas, and organizations. UNC Movement of Youth could

have each member post their favorite picture from UNC Movement of Youth events to publicize

the company, its activities and its opportunities to their followers.

    One of the largest problems that participants of the survey mentioned was the communication

between mentors and mentees. In addition to pointing out the lack of communication,

participants also suggested that mentors and mentees contact one another by means that are more

appealing to middle and high school age students. Mentors and mentees could exchange phone

numbers or add one another on Facebook in order to keep communication flowing. In

communication it is important to know one’s target audience and how they prefer to

communicate.

Page 17 of 30

Threats

    UNC Movement of Youth currently acquires its mentors through a class at UNC-CH in which

every student is required to be a mentor for the semester. This strategy is dangerous for the

company if it is the only means by which they use to acquire mentors, which it currently is. UNC

Movement of Youth would benefit from opening the opportunity to mentor to students that are

not associated with the class. This would provide the program with mentors whom possess a

variety of different educational skills, thus strengthening the quality of the mentorship program.

    A focus on strengthening social media presence poses the threat of creating an overbearing

presence on social media. Accounts that post too often lose followers and are not well received.

To prevent the sin of posting too often, UNC Movement of Youth should create a social media

plan that details how often it will post on each form of social media and what content should be

provided on each. The plan should include a minimum and a maximum number of times UNC

Movement of Youth should post on each form of social media. Creating a regular presence on

social media is the best way to create a better social media presence.

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats

- Student run organization. - Connected to a larger better known company. - Informative and consistent emails.- Contacts between the executive members.

- Social media presence (consistency of tweets, quality of Instagram posts, etc.)- Clarity of messages to target audience.- Communication between mentors and mentees/their parents.

- Create hashtags to raise awareness of mentorship opportunities.- Connecting mentors and mentees through phone numbers rather than email.

-  Not havingmentorship opportunities open to the general public. Limiting the exposure and involvement of student leaders.- Having an overbearing social media presence (tweeting too much in one day).

Page 18 of 30

Appendix

SurveyHow would you rate the overall internal communication of UNC MOY (emails, staff meetings, etc.)?

Very Ineffective Ineffective Neither Effective nor Ineffective EffectiveVery Effective

1 2 3 4 5

How would you rate the overall external communication of UNC MOY (newsletters, fliers, etc.)?

Very Ineffective Ineffective

Neither Effective nor Ineffective Effective

Very Effective

1 2 3 4 5

How strong do you feel UNC MOY’s social media presence is?

Very Weak Weak Neither weak or strong Strong Very Strong

1 2 3 4 5

In what areas can UNC MOY strengthen their social media presence?

On a scale of 1-5, 1 being not at all, 5 being extremely informed, How informed do you feel about updates made within UNC MOY?

Not at all informed - Neither informed or not informed - Very Informed

1 2 3 4 5

Do you have an adequate amount of time to fulfill deadlines? Yes No Other

Do you feel information for events are shared with an adequate amount of time for responses and preparation?

Yes

Page 19 of 30

No Other

How informed do you feel the public is about upcoming events within UNC MOY?

Not at all informed -Neither informed or not

informed - Very informed

1 2 3 4 5

How informed do you feel after reading a UNC MOY email?

Not at all informed - Neither informed or not informed - Very informed

1 2 3 4 5

Do you feel UNC MOY presents audiences with clear and consistent messages? Yes No Other

Does UNC MOY send messages through appropriate, effective communication vehicles?

Yes No Other

Do you feel there are open lines of communication between all levels of UNC MOY?

Yes No Other

Do you feel UNC MOY’s messages are reaching the target audience effectively? Yes No Maybe

How do you feel UNC MOY has communicated with you during your time in the company?

What would you do to change communication within UNC MOY?

How can UNC MOY improve communication with the students they serve?

Page 20 of 30

What is your role within UNC MOY?

Survey Results

Page 21 of 30

Page 22 of 30

Page 23 of 30

Page 24 of 30

Page 25 of 30

Page 26 of 30

Page 27 of 30

Page 28 of 30

Page 29 of 30