Communication Audit of the North Shore Community

Development Coalition Community Engagement Program

Audit Performed by Jonathan Carey

Introduction
North Shore Community Development Coalition invests in neighborhoods to create
thriving communities, envisioning a North Shore where each neighborhood is one of choice and
opportunity. The main purpose of the communications audit is to see if the organization is
communicating effectively with its publics about the community engagement program.
The Organization
North Shore CDC works to build homes and strengthen communities within areas of
Salem and Beverly. The community engagement program is about creating lasting benefits for
entire neighborhoods by bringing together residents, stakeholders, and community organizations
in a way that utilizes strengths of different groups to address community-identified issues. Each
member engages in continuing plans of building and sustaining civic engagements for the future.
The engagement strategy is about encouraging residents to participate in opportunities to make
decisions over changes in community, involving residents in projects that create positive
community improvement, and advocating for resources within low-income neighborhoods.
Target Audience Internal
The Community Engagement programs internal audiences are the residents of Beverly,
Massachusetts. Beverly currently has a population of 40, 664 residents in the city, with 52.6%
being female. About 19.5% of residents are under 18 years of age and 5.3% of the residents are
under five years old. Caucasian/white residents make up 92.9% of Beverly. Residents of mixed
races total up to 7.1% including African American, Native Americans, Asians, and
Hispanic/Latino background. An average of 7.8% residents speaks a language other than English
in their households. There are also 2,640 veterans that live in Beverly. In terms of educational

backgrounds, 94.7% of residents received a high school diploma and 43.4% have received a
bachelors degree or higher. Beverly provides about 15,704 households with 2.36 persons per
household. A total of 8.6% of residents in Beverly live below the poverty level.
Target Audience External
External target audiences include the stakeholders and community organizations.
Stakeholders are the residents of the Gloucester Crossing area and the North Shore CDC
organization.
Methodological Approach
For this communication audit, the census data was used to collect data about the Beverly
community. Utilizing the Census Data made it possible to narrow down the specifics of the
target audience that is being reached. Andrea Rhoades and Jacob Lefker made an appearance
one day to provide more information about the communications engagement program. Having
Jacob and Andreas speak about the program helped to gain a better sense about what their
program is all about. As well as the North Shore CDC representatives, viewing through the
companys website was a great way to access more information on the North Shore Community
Development Coalition. The professor provided marketing examples such as flyers and
brochures to examine how the company communicates with their audience. There were also
some confusing questions about their community engagement program that the professor
answered for the class.
Audit Results
Flyers
Each flyer contained clear and concise messages about what event was taking place, with
a specific location and time of when it will occur. The font was bold and big enough for the

audience to read through. Contact information was listed on each flyer for those wishing to
contact certain people. One great thing about the flyers was that most of them were translated
into Spanish for the non-English speaking residents of Beverly. Providing bi-lingual flyers is
crucial for reaching out to all residents, especially the people that speak a different language. An
issue I found was that the flyers did not provide information about the community engagement
program. Reading through the flyers, there was no information about the program itself.
Another issue was that one of the flyers did not translate into Spanish. Translating languages for
all forms of media outlets is vital for communicating with all audiences that read your
information.
Website
The website utilizes dark blue and orange colors for the background. Seven blue tabs on
the top of the page provide different sections for the site. There was sufficient contact
information listed on the site, providing emails and phone numbers of each of the employees.
Going through the site, there were no bugs or glitches that I encountered. I found the site easy
enough to navigate through and I found a small section about the Community Engagement
Program within the Community tab. One concern I found was that there was very little
information on the program itself. A small paragraph within the website is not enough to
communicate with the audience about the program. Another issue I saw was that there were not
enough details about the achievements awarded. Providing more background into the
achievements would motivate the audience to work with this company because of their notoriety.
Newsletters
North Shore Community Development Coalition provides a monthly newsletter
highlighting upcoming events each week. Viewing the newsletters is easy on the eyes and each

section is divided with dashed rectangles to avoid any confusion. There are small ad spots that
encourage the audience to follow the social media pages such as Facebook and Twitter. Some of
the newsletters are translated into Spanish. What is great about the newsletters is that they are
short and simple for people to read through. Having each section divided by dashed squares
helps make it easy for where the persons eyes should focus on. Most of the newsletters are
written in Spanish, which helps break down the language barriers within the community. My
one concern about the newsletters is that some do not translate into Spanish. Going back to the
issues with the flyers, it is essential to provide English and Spanish in order to capture all of the
demographics that you are trying to reach.
Facebook
The North Shore CDC Facebook page is updated daily about what events are coming
soon. Facebook page provided interesting articles about the homelessness situation in the
country. You are able to find many information about the contacts within the about page
including the address, phone number, hours of operation, and the website URL. One great
strength is that the about page is loaded with contact information, making it relatively easy to
contact the company. Each event provides interesting summaries with various pictures posted.
Another great tidbit is that the page provided different applications that they use such as Flickr or
Twitter. The one concern I have is that the content is not updated on a daily basis. There are
various gaps between certain times where no content has been posted. Going through the
Facebook page, there were not enough articles pertaining to the homelessness crisis in the
country. Adding more articles would encourage members of the North Shore Coalition to stand
up against the issues about homelessness. Another issue with the page is that there is not a
separate section on the Community Engagement Program.

Twitter
The Twitter page provides clear and concise tweets daily. Similar to the Facebook page,
the Twitter provides updates on events that occurred. Twitter hashtags are utilized to target the
idea for the event, with one event being labeled #doughnutsfordelegates. A great thing about the
Twitter page is the use of hashtags used to involve the Twitter community. Different handles
created by other companies are included within the tweets. Each tweet is short and easy to read.
Various photos are posted daily of each event that occurred during that time. One thing that is
not working is that the content is not updated on a daily basis. There are not enough tweets
created to update the community on events occurring later on. Similar issue with the Facebook
page, there were very few articles pertaining to the issues about homelessness.
Summary
Message Quality
Each of the media outlets are easy to read and have a clear understanding of its purpose.
The outlets provide sufficient information to reach the audience about what is going on within
the company. There are large fonts that are easy to read through and the language is clear
enough for the general audience. Not much information was provided about the community
engagement program, except for the small tidbits on the website.
Message Delivery
Most of the media outlets provide bi-lingual options for the Spanish speaking residents of
Beverly. Some of the flyers that were created are only in English. Non-English speakers would
easily be turned off by this idea and turn away from the company. Each social media outlet is

updated weekly, but the content is not posted on a daily basis. The Facebook and Twitter page
should provide articles pertaining to news about the homelessness crisis in the country.
Recommendations
Immediately
Update the Facebook and Twitter page constantly on a scheduled time in order to engage
with the audience. There should be a certain time for posting content about events that
happened, events that are coming up, and articles about the homelessness problem. Posting
content daily will help you communicate effectively with your audience.
Soon
Translating the newsletters to English or Spanish is necessary for reaching out to all
audiences spanning from different demographics. Some Beverly residents speak Spanish only
and are left out of the loop about what is going on within the North Shore Community
Development Coalition. Each newsletter and flyer must be bi-lingual to reconnect with our
audiences from different backgrounds.
As Time and Money Allows
Start to think about creating newsletters each week rather than each month. Writing a
newsletter weekly will keep the audience in tabs about what is occurring on a weekly basis.
Events that are written on monthly newsletters are easy to forget. The audience will remember
significant events easier when newsletters are published weekly.

Work Cited
"United States Census Bureau." Beverly (city) QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.