January 2024 - Parks & Recreation - 49

How trendsetters can help enrich your social media marketing
By Alexandra Reynolds
P
ark and recreation agencies seeking to elevate their social media
presence have embraced a widespread trend: partnering with social
media influencers. These collaborations help park and recreation
professionals reach audiences interested in topics like local
tourism, outdoor recreation, healthy lifestyles and local food. Influencers
infuse their brand identity into messaging and visuals to appeal to their
followers when promoting parks, facilities, events and programs, from a
walk in the park to a visit to the farmers market. Missouri's Great Rivers
Greenway and the City of Overland Park, Kansas, are seeing the benefits.
Great Rivers Greenway
Great Rivers Greenway, a regional
parks and trails district that comprises
a network of greenways
throughout
three
St.
Louis-area
counties, has engaged with local social
media influencers to promote
its programs and open space, says
Communications Manager Dallas
Adams. The district
focuses on
attracting a diverse group of area
residents to visit the greenways and
attend
programs.
Documenting
experiences with their unique lens
and storytelling
strategies,
influencers
explore the greenways, take
part in programs and encourage
their followers to do the same.
" We partner with social media influencers
to come and enjoy our programs
and to create content about
the greenways to share out with their
platforms. We've engaged with both
paid and organic influencers - so
making an ask and an invite to just
come out - and also, we have paid
influencers to make unique content
that we become collaborators on, "
says Adams.
The district focuses on partnering
with influencers who reach audiences
within their local area, as
they primarily seek to attract community
members and weekenders
to visit the greenways. " We work
with what somebody would consider
a micro or a small influencer,
so people who have anywhere
from...200 followers to...less than
10,000, because everybody has a
circle of influence... " she says.
When staff noticed that the district's
social media audience wasn't
balanced among the different areas
of the region they serve, they
sought the help of influencers to
expand their reach.
" [O]ur goal for success with influencers
was primarily to attract
a more diverse audience at our
events. Boosting attendance was a
secondary goal. We are definitely
starting to see people of different
races, ethnicities, ages and groups.
We're using influencers to get the
word out, and we're then responding
to that with changing up our
program offerings and days and
times they're offered so we're able
to welcome those new audiences
in, " says Adams.
Great Rivers Greenway seeks to
host an influencer event this year,
during which the district will offer
condensed samplings of its programs
to influencers. " We have had
a big dream to have an influencer
event, maybe two influencer events
a year, where we're inviting content
creators specifically to come out,
capture their experience of the greenway
and share it with their audiences.
So, it's a very direct ask, and
what they would receive in return
would be a unique 'behind-thescenes'
experience, " says Adams.
Influencers help shape perceptions
of the greenways, showing
that they are both for recreation
and leisure. " You don't have to
own a bike. You don't have to be
running on the trail or use it for
exercise. You can go look at birds,
or you can have a picnic. The influencers
capture what they like about
the experience and share it with
their
unique
audience, " Adams
says. She adds that influencers will,
hopefully, " draw people similar to
them to experience our programs
when we offer them. "
Engagement with local content
and audiences helps Great Rivers
Greenway find the right influencers
to reach out to for partnerships. Adams
regularly interacts with relevant
local influencers using Great Rivers
Greenway social media profiles.
" What we're looking for, because
we're trying to diversify our
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January 2024 - Parks & Recreation

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