Maya J. McNeary
Journalist-PR Professional- Brand Consultant
Public Relations Research
As a Senior PR Student I am taking a class on PR Research which allows a group of students to represent a company as their PR professional. This year's client is Literacy Mid-South which is a nonprofit organization that teach adults how to read. They also have a children's tutoring program for children who are falling behind in their reading levels. The organization struggles with volunteer retention, branding, and communication to it's audience. Here are some samples of primary research that I have done this semester with my group.
Client Media Audit
Competition Audit
Ozark Foothills Literacy Project
The Ozark Foothills Literacy Project is a non-profit organization in Batesville, Arkansas that works with adults to empower them and improve the local area through teaching literacy. Like Literacy Mid-South they do have initiatives for children such as the Reading is Superpower Summer Reading camp. They also hold annual events for kids like Bad Boy Splash and Dash for Literacy unlike Literacy Mid-South who only holds an annual bookfest. Ozark Foothills Literacy Project also holds The Bad Boy Super Sprint Triathlon for Literacy for adults to participate in. Each of these events helps raise money and awareness for their programs.
There are clear differences in volunteers between Ozark Foothills Literacy and Literacy Mid-South. Literacy Mid-South struggles with volunteers being committed and consistent. Ozark Foothills Literacy may have the solution to that problem as they require their volunteers to sign a year long commitment contract stating they will tutor students for 2 hours each week. Like Literacy Mid-South, the volunteers must be 18 years old or older however that is not clearly stated on their website like Ozark Foothills Literacy.
National Center for Families Learning
National Center for Families Learning is an organization focused on families being productive and are educated together. They focus on nonnative speakers of English which could be an entire audience that Literacy Mid-South is missing as they only focus on adults with little to no education.
They have a program that is focused solely on children called Camp Wonderopolis, and it has its own website separate from the organization. This is extremely similar to Literacy Mid-South’s separate website for Read 901, but there are some major differences. Read 901 is mentioned nowhere on Literacy Mid-South’s website to direct people to the initiative. One of the first things seen when visiting National Center for Families Learning’s website was the banner for Camp Wonderopolis and a link to go to the separate site. They are almost extremely present and current on their social media, and their brand is consistent.
Beacon for Adult Literacy
Beacon for Adult Literacy is a program that provides education for adults at a reasonable price due to the sponsors and donors. The classes for adults are either 2 or 3 days a week, and taught by volunteer teachers in a much more formal setting than Literacy Mid-South. The classes are offered in the morning and night which could possibly improve participation for Literacy Mid-South if done. Literacy Mid-South’s volunteers have had a problem with volunteering during the day because that is when most of them work. They do not have a huge social media presence just as Literacy Mid-South, but Literacy Mid-South does have their media outlets connected to their website.
Media Audit
Memphis Daily News wrote an article “Change Coming to Literacy Mid-South.” This article gives an update on all the changes that were being made within LMS in 2013. In order to save money they moved locations, moving from a 10,000 square foot location to just a 1,700 square foot location. This move saved around $60,000 annually. This tremendous amount being saved will be pushed back into literacy programs. The article gave an update on the Collaboration Fund as well. Literacy Mid-South’s Collaboration Fund provided $50,000 towards education in $5,000 increments to literacy programs providing education. There was also $17,500 donated towards training programs. Literacy Mid-South worked hard to build up other institutions and their sustainability in 2013, realizing that they needed the help of their institutions because they were too small to take it all on by themselves. This article shows many smart improvements Literacy Mid-South was making. It is very informative and increases awareness about the changes being made and a history as to where the proceeds are being used.
Another article written by Memphis Daily News in 2016 was concerning the resignation of the then Executive Director Kevin Dean. At first this article may come off as a tribute to Kevin Dean, but it especially highlights all the changes and growth that was made during his five years as executive director. The LMS community as well as employers were all caught by surprise when Dean announced his resignation. He left Literacy Mid-South without a sure plan for his future, but also because he knew it was his time to go. He took advice from his mother by not leaving the company until it was better than it was when he started. The end of June 2016 there was over $1 million dollars left in the account. This turnaround is the legacy Kevin Dean left with. Not only did he improve the non-profit financially and reach out to gain substantial donors but he also expanded the program. Literacy Mid-South now partners with several other literacy programs and 31 libraries. Along with The Memphis Read Project there is also a 3rd grade reading program as well.
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High Ground News has written about Literacy Mid-South with an uplifting tone, welcoming anyone who is capable of volunteering. The High Ground News article highlights the rapid growth, Literacy Mid-South has seen recently. It gives an insightful background on how the adult reading program expanded from a single building to 31 libraries they partner with, allowing over 500 adult students to use this program. The 500 adult students using the programs is limited at 500 because of the need for more volunteer workers. There is a waiting list for adult students wanting in on the program, but can not be taken care of until there is more help available. This article definitely brings awareness to LMS’s mission.
WREG News covered a write up LMS as well. This article was to bring attention the annual bookfest held by Literacy Mid-South. It explains the main goal of bookfest, and how it seeks to bring other literacy organizations out so that they all have the opportunity to share success stories and help one another learn techniques that work for them.
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Creating a diverse board and volunteer base has seemed to be a struggle for Literacy Mid-South. They first targeted elder, wealthier people who were already board members of other non-profits, unwilling to join a new one until they had decided to let go of a current board they were on. Because of this issue LMS decided to target a younger crowd (35-49 age range) and with this plan they were able to bring on more board members and for most of these new members it was the first board they were on. The age range they targeted for board members is also the age range of 40 percent of adults not able to read. This article brings light to the younger foundation LMS has been able to rely on as the grow.
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Social Media Audit
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Literacy Mid-South is somewhat consistent on some social media sites, but nearly nonexistent on others. On Facebook they have 2,751 likes, and on Twitter they have 2,678 followers. On their website their are links to click that take visitors directly to their Facebook and Twitter pages, but not to Instagram. On Facebook and Twitter post happen on more than a daily basis. The problem with those two social media sites is the content put on them based on the organization’s audience. The root of the problem comes from the organization not being clearly aware of who the audience is that needs to be targeted.
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Most of the tweets posted are things that would be more successful on Facebook. Facebook allows for more long, detailed post whereas Twitter gets the information out with 140 characters or less. If the messages were switch the social media platform would be used to its full potential. Outside of misplaced messages and no target audience there are not huge problems with their Facebook and Twitter.
Instagram is a problem for the organization in a major way as they only have 846 followers. Pictures posted do not call audiences to action or give publicity to what is coming up. Most of the post are always pictures of things after the event has taken place which really does not help the organization as much as publicity would. Also the captions do not always explain what the picture is about. The biggest problem with their Instagram page is the fact that their last post was on April 18, 2016. If they were at least as active as the Facebook and Twitter accounts, their social media presence would be so much more effective.
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Works Cited
https://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/2013/may/23/changes-coming-to-literacy-mid-south/
http://www.highgroundnews.com/features/LiteracyMidsouth.aspx
http://www.literacymidsouth.org/news/literacy-mid-south-creating-diverse-board-and-volunteers/
One method of research done was a survey created by our group. Click here to view.