Communication Audit MOY

Communication Audit
Lauren McDonald, Ashley Pollard, and Vanessa Watson
Dec. 1, 2015

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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

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Executive Summary
The 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.
Generalconsensus 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 keepmentors 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

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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 keepthe 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.

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Introduction
Movement 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

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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.

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Methodology
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.

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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.

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Audit Diary
The 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.

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Results
Through 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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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 having
mentorship 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).

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Appendix
Survey
How would you rate the overall internal communication of UNC MOY (emails,
staff meetings, etc.)?
Very Ineffective Ineffective Neither Effective nor Ineffective Effective
Very
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

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

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How can UNC MOY improve communication with the students they serve?
What is your role within UNC MOY?
Survey Results

Communication Audit MOY

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