COM 377 Research and

Objectives Assignment
Katie Slaven, Sierra Koenig, Jared Summers, and Claudia Cesario
 Research and Objectives Normal Fire Department
Intro:

About the Normal Fire Department, “The Normal Fire Department is an organization

dedicated to preserving the life and property of Town residents through the prevention and

suppression of fires, emergency medical service and fire prevention.” The NFD has 65 full-time

firefighters and paramedics. Also, NFD has two assistant chiefs, an office associate, and two fire

inspectors. The Town of Normal has three fire stations so they are able to respond quickly. In this

report we will be going over the opportunities, the audience reach, and the objectives for the

NFD. We are trying to improve the NFD’s outreach to the students at Illinois State University on

fire safety through the use of social media such as TikTok and Instagram.

Client Research:

For the NFD, we read Google reviews along with

their website and social media accounts. For social media,

we found that they communicate mostly through Facebook

and have the most followers there compared to their other

social media accounts. They do not have a presence on

TikTok. On the NFD’s website people can also sign up for

notifications and emergency alerts. The website also

provides a lot of news, fire safety tips and contact information.

The goals of the NFD are to mitigate hazards and emergencies by responding rapidly and

in a professional manner to all requests, to provide public safety education and awareness as well

as fire code compliance and enforcement. Lastly, to provide employee development that

enhances professionalism as well as proficiency.

On the website the Fire Chief Mick Humer talks about the fire department's services.
The services are:
● Protecting lives and property through fire suppression
● Emergency medical services
● Disaster management
● Fire prevention and public education
● They also want to alert the public fast and keep them in the loop

The NFD has many responsibilities beyond fire emergencies. The main responsibility of

firefighters is to protect the community. The NFD keeps citizens updated on the website and

social media. Firefighters respond to much more than just fires. Firefighters are first responders

along with paramedics and police officers. They are on call day and night and must respond

quickly to a call. Chron’s website says common responses for firefighters are fires, such as

building fires or forest fires, automobile crashes, train crashes, or airplane crashes. Firefighters

respond to medical issues more than fires.

The mission statement of the NFD is:

“To Encourage our employees to serve as role

models and participate in the community. Maintain a

high standard of training and education for our

employees in order to maintain a high degree of

operational capability. Promote a safe community

through public education, fire prevention, fire

investigation and code enforcement. Protect the lives

and property of the citizens and visitors of the Town of

Normal during all emergencies and disasters and to

utilize all available resources in an efficient and fiscally-responsible manner.”

The NFD keeps citizens updated on social media. Here are the followers for each social media
platform.
NFD Social Media Followers:
● On Facebook they have 15K followers.
● On Instagram they have 1,605 followers.
● On TikTok they have 0 followers. They made an account and have not posted yet.
● On Twitter they have 3,275 followers.
● On YouTube they have 32 subscribers and average from 200 to 2k views.

Normal Fire Department Social Media Followers

Normal Fire Department Social Media Followers

These graphs show that the NFD reaches

the majority of its public through Facebook.

Facebook is a good platform for adults but not for

college students. The NFD wants to create more of

an awareness on fire safety to ISU Students. Most

college students use Instagram or TikTok. NFD

not posting on TikTok is decreasing the

engagement opportunities they would have with

ISU students on fire safety.

 The public communication of the NFD is good. They post on social media to keep

everyone updated. The NFD posts fire safety reminders, events they have done, and updates.

This image is an example of a post that they have on social media for fire safety.

The NFD social media disclaimer:

The Town uses external social media as a public service to:

● Share news and information about services, programming and events.

● Learn about the community’s needs and concerns.

● Reach a broader audience and further enhance communications with various.

stakeholder organizations in support of Town goals and objectives.

● Increase engagement through

creation of a stronger virtual

community.

● Contribute to relevant

conversations and address

questions/concerns efficiently.

The disclaimer also says, “The Town’s intent is to provide users with timely, accurate and

complete information; however, given the ever-changing environment, users should be aware

this may not always be possible. Posts and comments appear in real-time, making it impossible

for the Town to review a post/comment before it becomes publicly readable. The Town does not

guarantee the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any post or comment. We believe our

community is stronger when we engage with respect and civility even when we disagree. We

value citizen input and constructive feedback.” The NFD shows how important communication

is to them and how they also value citizens' feedback.

 The public view of the NFD is good. Between the

headquarters of the fire department and the fire stations the

NFD has three reviews on Google and they are all five star

reviews.

The Google reviews say:

● “Thank you for keeping our community safe!”

● “Great firefighters.”
● “It's a very normal fire department indeed.”

Problem Research:

A problem that could be addressed through a campaign is having visuals and social media

posts that stick with the audience. When creating messages through the format of social media,

the post should be attention grabbing and have an element that makes the audience stay. With

this specific client, most of the social media posts have an element of humor. Due to the

seriousness of their job, the posts allow them to be perceived in a more positive and light hearted

perspective. The problems that can arise from that, however, are not having a lasting effect on

the audience.

Another problem that could be addressed is the reach to different audiences. The NFD is

very active on Facebook. Facebook allows the fire department to reach a large audience and

spread valuable information. However, there are other social media platforms that could draw in

more attention and reach different audiences. By using upcoming and popular social media

platforms, it could reach a younger audience, especially the

students at ISU. Keeping up with the social media

challenges or trends could gain the NFD more coverage and attention.

The NFD does a great job of doing demonstrations of fire safety within the community.

When meeting with the client, they discussed their live demonstration in Uptown Normal.

Having more face-to-face interactions with the community could help the clients image. This

helps the audiences and the client have a more personal interaction and connection, while

helping the client get their message across. The live interactions will help the audiences become

engaged and peak interest. They recently gave a tour of the firehouse to children in the

community. Increased community involvement would benefit the NFD.

The client mentioned that they have different target

audiences depending on the time of the year because Normal is a

college town. When school is in session, the fire department is

more active and has more calls than compared to the summer

when the majority of people are back home. This can factor into

how the campaign is approached. Focusing in on the younger and

student audience, there is not any negative attitudes towards the

NFD but the attitude is indifferent. A favorable circumstance for

the fire department is their location. They are directly on campus and this could be in their favor.

This allows the students to frequently pass by the fire department.

The campaign is proactive because it is trying to build the success of the NFD. Rather

than looking at what has gone wrong in previous campaigns or efforts, the campaign will bring

new ideas to the success of the department.

Audience Research:
 The general audience for the NFD is anyone living in Bloomington-Normal. These

residents can be broken into many sub-categories. The sub-categories include families, young

people, elderly, students, parents of students, home and apartment owners, landlords, business

owners, staff at schools, Bloomington-Normal Government (BN Gov), pet owners, social media

users, firefighter’s friends and family, other public safety officials, the firefighters themselves

and more. The table below includes a ranking of these publics from most important to least

important to the NFD. The table also rates how involved or active each public is in the

organization. For example, landlords in Bloomington-Normal are red which stands for “very

active in the organization” because they must be up to date with fire code when constructing a

new building and they must be on top of their residents smoke alarms. ISU and nearby

University students are categorized as yellow, this stands for “kind of active.” The students are

not necessarily active but they have interacted with NFD through live demonstrations. TikTok

users are categorized as blue, this stands for “not very active”. NFD has a TikTok account but

does not actively post, limiting the users and audiences to be reached through the TikTok app.
Table of Publics:

Key: Red – Very active in the organization, Yellow – Kind of active, Blue – Not very active

1. Residents of Anyone living in the Bloomington-Normal area.

Bloomington-Normal

2. Families in #1 was in reference to individuals in Bloomington-Normal

Bloomington-Normal while #2 moves into families.

3. Young people in This public is more important in my opinion than older

Bloomington-Normal people since older people are more likely to already know

about fire safety.

4. Older people in This would account for the remaining public in

Bloomington-Normal Bloomington-Normal. As mentioned above this public is less

important than the publics ranked above it because this

public is more likely to already be informed on fire safety.

5. Illinois State University This is an important public for the Fire Department as a lot

& nearby university of the fires they respond to are in apartment buildings owned

students by Illinois State Students.

6. Apartment owners & Apartment owners and homeowners are important as they

homeowners in need to be checking their smoke detectors and making sure

Bloomington-Normal they are up to date and working.

7. Landlords in These are the owners of these apartment complexes, and it is

Bloomington-Normal important they are up to date on fire code and are enforcing

the use of smoke detectors.

8. Business owners in They are an important public as business owners must make

Bloomington-Normal sure their business is following the fire code.

9. School kids ages K-12 Kids in this age group are an important public as they need

in Bloomington-Normal to learn about fire safety now so they can apply it later in

life. They can also bother their parents to check the smoke

detectors as the representative from the department said.

10. Faculty & staff at Faculty & Staff for the local universities are an important

Illinois State University public because they can make sure their university buildings

& nearby universities are safe and follow fire codes. They can also try to reach

students about fire safety.

11. Parents of school kids I believe parents of students aged K-12 are more important

ages K-12 in than the parents of Illinois State University & other

Bloomington-Normal Universities students because the K-12 parents most likely

also live in Bloomington-Normal.

12. Bloomington-Normal The local Government is an important public because they

Government can relay fire safety messages to their bigger audience.

Local pet owners are an important public as they will be interested

13. Pet owners in in fire safety because they will never want to be in a situation

where their pets are in danger.

Bloomington-Normal
14. Parents of Illinois State Parents of ISU students and other college aged students are

University and other an important public because they will be interested in what's

nearby university going on in their student's town and they can relay fire safety

students messages to their students.

15. Firefighter family and The families and friends of the firefighters will be interested

friends in what's going on at the department.

16. Future firefighters Future firefighters will be interested in what's going on at the

department.

17. Other public safety Related publics like Police officers or Medical employees will be

departments like Police interested in what's going on at the department.

or Medical

18. Facebook users Facebook is their most popular social media site

19. Instagram users Instagram is their second most popular social media site

20. TikTok users They have yet to start their TikTok, but it could be beneficial

for the department to use it to connect to the youth.

21. People interested in the People interested in the science behind fires are important

science behind fires because they will listen to the department's message and be

interested in it.
 23. The firefighters The firefighters will be interested in what's going on at the

themselves department but are last in the rankings because they are

already going to be involved with the department and don’t

need to be reached.

The publics we plan to target are ISU and other university students & TikTok users. Most

students at ISU are in the 18 to 24 year-old age range. TikTok users by average are mostly in the

10-29 year-old age range. This is why it would be beneficial to use TikTok to reach ISU students.

Graph courtesy of Niche

With 43% of students at ISU being 20-21 and 38% of students at ISU being 18-19, we know that

many of those students are on TikTok. This is because of data about TikTok’s users ages.
Graph Courtesy of Statista

As we can see in this graph, a large group of TikTok users are college aged students. We believe

that TikTok will be the best way to reach ISU and other university students.

Graph Courtesy of Statista

In this graph, the age range of Facebook users is shown. While there are many users in the age

range of 25-34, that is more of the grad student age than the undergrad student age. If we were
specifically looking to reach grad students, then Facebook would be a good choice but for our

specific target audience we believe TikTok will be better.

Objectives:

Our main goal of this campaign for the NFD is to engage the younger audience and

college students of the city of Normal on proper fire safety and etiquette. To gain awareness,

objectives must be implemented to make this successful. We will create output objectives,

outtake objectives, and outcome objectives. By creating these objectives, not only will we

engage an audience, but we will be able to see what works well and what does not work.

Output Objectives:

For our output objectives, we are trying to reach the desired target audience as best as

possible. To do this, we can implement different social media strategies that will effectively help

us reach our goal.

Produce 1-2 posts for Facebook The Normal Fire Department posts regularly

on Facebook and is where they have the most

engagement. However, since we are targeting

college students, we will try to move towards

Instagram and Tik-Tok more only to target our

specific audience. We will still create

Facebook posts but they will ultimately be

enticing for a younger audience and will

accurately inform them about proper fire

safety.
 Create a Tik-Tok account and produce 2-3 Here, we can create funny videos, and also

videos informational videos. Since Tik-Tok is one of

the most popular apps right now for the

younger generation, this will create

engagement within the Fire Department.

Create 2-3 Instagram posts and Instagram By creating Instagram stories specifically,

stories. viewers are able to repost on their accounts

creating more traction onto the fire

departments page. Also, creating instagram

posts will be crucial

Have ISU’s leasing agents post on their Since we are targeting college students, most

Instagram. students who do not live in the dorms tend to

live in off-campus apartments. With these

apartments come leasing companies who

lease to ISU’s students. Here, we could have

the leasing agents such as Young America,

SAMI, and First Site post on their Instagrams

about proper fire safety they should be having

within their apartments.

Outtake Objectives:

For outtake objectives, our main goal is to gain traction within the NFD’s social media.

We want college students to retain and pay attention to our desired posts on social media so they
can understand the main goal of the campaign which is to educate college students and the town

of Normal’s younger audience.

To have 1,000+ views on Tik Tok. By creating posts on Tik Tok, we hope to have

at least 1,000 views for each post we make.

1,000 views is our goal because that is a great

majority of ISU’s campus and younger

audience that we can reach.

To have 10+ Instagram stories re-shares. We want 100+ story reshares on Instagram

because we believe this is a great area to

target only because most college students are

on Instagram. By creating these Instagram

stories and having reshares this can spread the

word around and even if not everyone

reshares it, people scrolling through Instagram

will still be able to see it.

Outcome Objectives:

The main goal for outcome objectives is to get our desired audience more aware of the

goal of the campaign. We can do this through holding events, and posting curated posts on

different socials. Our main demographic is college students and the priority is to have them

educated on fire safety.

Have leasing agents hold events at their BY holding an event like this, it will attract

leasing office and offer free food to students college students because of free food. Having
in exchange to hear more about fire safety. an incentive like this will have the desired

audience attend an event that will educate

them on proper fire safety rules.

To increase college students' knowledge on In the past, it was not common for students to

fire safety by 50% compared to years in the not know proper fire safety. Such as taking

past. their smoke detectors off, or not closing their

door while they are sleeping. The main goal

of this is to increase awareness about fire

etiquette, and we will do this through social

media posts and holding events.

Conclusion:

The overall goal of the campaign is to attract a younger audience to the NFD. The

students of ISU are the desired audience. The campaign will inform the audience on fire safety

and different preventive measures. The younger audience will be informed through different

forms of social media and face-to-face interactions, such as live demonstrations. With a

relatively active social media presence, the NFD will increase their online presence to help

connect with the students and the younger audiences on and off campus.