January 2024 - Parks & Recreation - 50

INFLUENCERS
audience, is somebody who's in
touch with the people. So, we follow
them, we like their stuff, we
organically comment on their content
- 'This is so cool' or 'This is
so awesome' - so that when we
ask them, 'Hey, will you come to
this storybook walk with your toddler
and take pictures and post it on
your social?' you're not a stranger,
you're not a ghost, and I think
sometimes people both overthink
an ask - influencers are regular
people, you can ask them anything
you want - but also, undervalue
relationship building. It's like
building relationships in real life!
Someone who really likes you and
is already doing the things that you
want them to do and is already
feeling the love from your brand
interacting with them...makes it
even better for your brand and [that
influencer] to partner together. "
Overland Park Farmers'
Market
The City of Overland Park, located
in the Kansas City metropolitan
area, has partnered with local social
media influencers to promote
its
farmers market. Recreation
Supervisor Kristina Stanley, who
oversees the market's operations
and social media, draws on her
background forming partnerships
when approaching her work with
Kansas City (KC) area influencers.
The city's
influencer partnerships
" truly started to develop back
in 2019 when the Overland Park
Farmers' Market hosted a social
media influencer day. After a careful
process of recruiting a diverse
and talented team of influencers,
the Overland Park Farmers' Market
invited about 25 of Kansas City's
largest influencers to the market on
the same day. We established an inkind
partnership that benefited [the
influencers] and the Overland Park
Farmers' Market and its vendors.
The influencers all had something
unique to offer the community,
each with their own perspective,
ranging from foodies to lifestyle
to moms to photography to health
and wellness to fashion to travel to
KC enthusiast, " Stanley says.
Stanley breaks her target audience
into two groups and works
with influencers to grow both audiences.
The first is " grocery shoppers
who get [there] early because
they want the best produce, know
what's in season and know who
they want to buy it from, " and the
second is " the destination crowd,
which is the family looking for
something to do, the couple wanting
a date day, the girls getting together
for brunch [who] end up getting
coffee and flowers and posting
about it, or the person visiting from
another part of the city or from out
of town, " she says.
Influencers have helped the city
attract people who fall into both
categories. " The years that we extensively
launched a campaign
around working with them brought
our highest attendance numbers
and some of the highest sales for
the vendors, " Stanley notes. " In
general, social media influencers
reached an audience we were not
reaching through traditional forms
of advertising - paid or earned.
Additionally, they not only reached
a new audience, but [also] they got
their followers to act - they got
them to the market, they bought
goods and have returned! "
Influencer partnerships also have
fostered greater diversity among
the market's attendees. " Our market
shopper
demographic has
changed significantly over the last
five years of working with influencers
to be more diverse in every
facet, which inherently just keeps
drawing more and more interest,
making our market better each and
every year, " she says.
What's more, influencers helped
the Overland Park Famers' Market
earn national
recognition. Stanley
says, " In 2022, we were in the
running to be voted the best farmers
market in America [tinyurl.
com/22fzkam2]. We not only
tapped
into
the
influencers we
The City of Overland Park, Kansas,
partners with local social media influencers
to promote its farmers market.
50 Parks & Recreation |
J ANUAR Y 2 0 2 4 | PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
PHOTO COURTESY OF TBL PHOTOGRAPHY
http://tinyurl.com/22fzkam2 http://tinyurl.com/22fzkam2
January 2024 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2024 - Parks & Recreation
