Ken and Nora
Facebook: facebook.com/kenandnora
Instagram: instagram.com/kenandnora
The City of Kenora is located in the heart of the continent, on the Canadian Shield, in the northwest corner of Ontario, just 50 kilometers from the Manitoba border and 2 hours from Winnipeg. Kenora is perched on the north
shore of Lake of the Woods and its 14,522 islands and 65,000 miles of shoreline. Kenora is that iconic Canada painted by the Group of Seven – the granite, the pines and the water. Kenora has a population of approximately
15,000 residents that is bolstered by a seasonal resident population estimated to be two to three times larger. There is a thriving service-based economy that includes strong tourism, health care, retail, hospitality, education, and government services sectors.
In 2022, the City of Kenora, in partnership with the Harbourtown BIZ – the Business Improvement Area for the downtown core – developed the Ken and Nora social media pages on Facebook and Instagram to share things to see, things to do and places to go in the community. Ken and Nora (a play on “Kenora”) are two graphically designed icons that also showcase and share business events and promotions in the community.
The purpose of the Ken and Nora pages is to create a fun and creative social media outlet that residents, visitors, organizations and businesses can engage with to receive and share information. The Ken and Nora pages have been an effective and positive platform to showcase events and activities in the
City of Kenora. Engagement by local businesses and organizations to share information has continued to grow since inception and the pages are quickly becoming the go-to social media accounts to find out what is going on in the
community. In 2022 and early 2023, Facebook followers were 461 with engagement of 12,131 engagement. Instagram had 672 followers with a reach of 1,476.
The City of Kenora has worked to continue to grow engagement on the page and has focused on new opportunities to develop followers. Recently, the partnership engaged content creators from Winnipeg as a test form of marketing to share visitor experiences to Kenora. This worked to grow engagement on the Ken and Nora page and was crossposted to Tourism Kenora. Two reels are posted on the Ken and Nora Instagram account and currently the reel by @thesanddeep29 has 11.1k views and the reel by @nonstopdestination has 8,054. These reels are aesthetically appealing and showcase the beauty of Kenora and local businesses. In working with the content creators, the
Facebook following grew from 461 to 545 and the reach almost doubled to 21,468. The Instagram following grew from 672 to 729 and the reach increased by over 350 views. The Ken and Nora pages are followed by local residents, seasonal residents, businesses and organizations. It is intended to be a fun and friendly platform that appeals to all ages. Businesses and organizations tag or direct message the Ken and Nora pages with event or special information to be shared. Two-way communication with businesses allows Ken and Nora to know what is on in the community and, as a result, allows for information to be shared with the targeted audience.
