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O'Fallon parks’ community engagement team touts social-media reach and $57,000 in sponsorships ahead of summer events
Summary
Kristen Fenderberg presented the department’s social-media strategy and sponsorship performance: multiple pages capture a large regional audience, a recent high-performing post reached about 70,000 views (one OTW video reached ~1.4M views), the department has secured just over $57,000 in sponsorships this year and about $10,000 in in-kind support for Heritage and Freedom Fest.
Kristen Fenderberg, who oversees community engagement for O'Fallon Parks and Recreation, gave a detailed presentation on June 10 about social-media strategy, sponsorship revenue and outreach efforts ahead of summer programming.
Fenderberg said the department manages multiple Facebook and Instagram pages to reach different audiences and that interactions (likes, shares, comments) are the most important metric for pushing content into more feeds. "I get to supervise 6 pages," she told the board, describing how staff schedule posts by when users are online and tailor content to platforms and audiences. She described a recent parks post that had about 70,000 views and 166 interactions and an O'Fallon TheatreWorks post that reached roughly 1,400,000 views and, within a week, led to about 156 ticket sales.
On sponsorships, Fenderberg said the department is "sitting at just above 57,000 in sponsorship for the year," with a mix of event-specific and year-long packages. She noted in-kind donations of roughly $10,000 tied mainly to Heritage and Freedom Fest, and said the department is trying to make packages accessible to smaller businesses while retaining value for larger sponsors. For Jammin events, the top package was described as $1,250 and the program has begun to run into booth-space limits as demand grows.
Fenderberg also highlighted outreach programming such as the Park Passport and free 'Get Out and Play' pop-ups (next scheduled for June 18 at Sports Park), partnerships with the police department and BJC for bicycle safety, and work with the O'Fallon photo club and volunteers to gather event visuals. She said paid advertising budgets vary by event and fund (Renard Center, parks and recreation non-tourism, and the larger tourism and festivals fund) and that larger, ticketed events justify bigger ad spends.
Board members asked for budget figures and reach metrics; Fenderberg said paid-ad budgets are set by event and fund and that she would provide more detailed numbers. She also agreed to share the sponsorship packet with board members for review.
The board thanked Fenderberg for the presentation and requested follow-up on paid-ad budget details and distribution of the sponsorship packet.
