Meet content creators with a growing influence in the Lehigh Valley

Thousands of people visited Dorney Park for opening day of its 2026 season earlier this month.

For many guests, the experience of riding roller coasters, eating food and not thinking about day-to-day troubles was enough, but for 20-year-old Colin Petrignani, the experiences were not enough on their own.

He needed footage and opinions for his Coliwood Studios YouTube channel, where he detailed his experiences with parking, ordering food, showing new merchandise and using special glasses to record rides on roller coasters. He has more than 155,000 followers and subscribers across YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

Petrignani is among a growing number of social media influencers whose work seems to connects with audiences more than traditional marketing — and who, more often, are being embraced by tourist spots, restaurants and other businesses in the Lehigh Valley and beyond.

“There’s only so much marketing a park can do until it gets to the point where people see it over and over and they’re like, ‘Alright, I get it. Maybe I’ll go, maybe I won’t. It doesn’t matter.’ ” said Petrignani, who lives in New Jersey. “But if you’re somebody who’s an influencer, you’re able to build up this level of trust with your audience and people start to genuinely look up to you and look forward to what you have to say and what you have to share.”

The power of both social media and influencers is undeniable. As the Associated Press reported, a Media Insight Project study published in late April found that 36% of American adults — and 57% of teens between the ages of 13 and 17 — say they get news from social media at least once a day. A majority of teens and adults receive at least some news from influencers or independent creators, the study said.

In the Lehigh Valley, influences have worked with Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom, the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, Discover Lehigh Valley and the Greater Easton Development Partnership for events like PA Bacon Fest, Halloween Haunt, America 250, ribbon cuttings and restaurant weeks.

“They have the ability, through building some type of trust with their content, to actually affect people’s opinions or choices or even behavior,” said Jessica Ferrara, communications and media manager for the Greater Easton Development Partnership. “Because they’re getting you excited about something or they’re showing something, and whether it’s subconscious or not, they’re kind of shifting you in a direction, whether you realize it, by just pushing out certain content that they either think you want to see, or maybe it’s not even that you want to see, but it’s content that’s personal to them. And then the next thing you know, there’s been a connection made.”

Jessica O’Donnell-Gower, executive vice president of chambers of commerce for the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, said that “while we don’t have the stats when we have partnered with these third-party influencers, we see the comments. We see, ‘Oh my gosh, we need to check this out. Oh my gosh, how was that?’ So in real time, we’re seeing that driven engagement on these posts.”

Colin Petrignani, front row left, who films and posts amusement...

Colin Petrignani, front row left, who films and posts amusement park enthusiast content on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube under the name Coliwood Studios, rides the Hydra roller coaster Friday, May 8, 2026, during opening day at Dorney Park in South Whitehall Township. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)

Colin Petrignani, who films and posts amusement park enthusiast content on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube under the name Coliwood Studios, rides the Hydra roller coaster Friday, May 8, 2026, during opening day at Dorney Park in South Whitehall Township. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)

Colin Petrignani, who films and posts amusement park enthusiast content on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube under the name Coliwood Studios, creates content Friday, May 8, 2026, during opening day at Dorney Park in South Whitehall Township. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)

Colin Petrignani, who films and posts amusement park enthusiast content on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube under the name Coliwood Studios, creates content with his “crew,” asking them what they thought about the ride, on Friday, May 8, 2026, during opening day at Dorney Park in South Whitehall Township. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)

Colin Petrignani, front row, left, who films and posts amusement park enthusiast content on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube under the name Coliwood Studios, rides the Hydra roller coaster Friday, May 8, 2026, during opening day at Dorney Park in South Whitehall Township. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)

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The rise of influencers

The platforms influencers use — especially Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube — have been around for many years.

Kendal Conrad, a Pottstown-based musician who has nearly 11,000 followers for her Kendal’s Bites accounts on Instagram and Facebook, started her influencer career during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“During COVID, we were all stuck at home and quarantining, but we could all still get online,” she said. “So I started doing these Facebook Live concerts from my living room where I would play songs and then I would taste test products like chips, and I would do happy hour with people and talk about what wine I was drinking.”

That work allowed Conrad to connect with people when she couldn’t perform like she used to, and as a “big foodie,” she wanted to take her work beyond the living room.

“I would set up alone, socially distanced with a mask in an empty restaurant, and I would stream live from empty restaurants during COVID,” she said. “And I would taste test the food there and be like, ‘Come get the food. It’s safe. They’re struggling.’ … Then it became a way to support the community at that point, so that was really rewarding.”

Fran Monari and her fiancé Marc Carire started posting about two years ago for their One Bite Stand accounts on Instagram and TikTok for restaurants and bakeries, including in the Lehigh Valley, and have gained roughly 11,800 followers. Monari works in sales and account management for the Tempest marketing agency in Philadelphia, while Carire works for Crayola.

Monari said her influencer work came from a need for creativity outside normal 9-to-5 work. She loves to create and edit footage, finding the work calming and like a puzzle.

“When I was really figuring out, well, what do I want to do? Would I do lifestyle? Would I do makeup? Fashion?” she recalled. “No one would really trust me for any fashion advice or makeup advice, but I was like, wait, me and Marc, we love food. We love going out. We love trying new places, finding even hole-in-the-wall places. We love sharing our opinion on food places, like food is really … our love language.”

At the very least, she figured, “it can serve as a diary of all of our food adventures that we’ve gone on, right? Like if nothing else comes out of it, it’s a way for me to just create. It’s a way for us to enjoy time together.”

@onebite_stand

your inspo to get a chocolate covered coffee roll and other sweet treats from #eastonbakingco tomorrow morning 🤤🤩🫶🏽 #eastonbakingcompany #onebitestand #lehighvalleypa #donuts

♬ original sound – ONE BITE STAND

Rachel Peri, the former president of the Arts Community of Easton, said she became an influencer to help small businesses she was already visiting as a customer, and has since gained about 12,700 followers across Instagram and Facebook.

“When I was the president for them, I really kind of wanted to expand on who I was promoting, so I loved promoting the artists, but I also wanted to promote all different types of small businesses as well,” she said. “I also really love food, coffee, and there’s a lot of businesses in the Lehigh Valley that I’ve been going to for so long — some of them like over 10 years — and so I really wanted to highlight those businesses as well.”

Businesses that partner with influencers say their work is a way to connect with potential customers on a more personal level.

Ryan Eldredge, the public relations manager for Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom, said, “When we talk about telling stories traditionally, there’s just things that maybe we can’t encapsulate in the full picture, right? So maybe it is very specific to a mom coming in from Berks County, and she’s got two kids and maybe one has autism, and her experience is different. And she is able to tell what that story is like in a way that is positive and engaging, and it will help us reach an audience that is very specific to her.”

How to be a successful influencer

Conrad’s approach to social media influencing includes focusing on content that no one else is posting about, using royalty-free music and giving a narrative when she experiences a meal or event.

But the secret to success and gaining followers, she said, is to post every day, even if it’s just personal stuff or related to music.

“I don’t miss a day, even when I don’t feel good,” Conrad said. “I come up with something and I post it, and there’s no cutting corners … there’s no secret. Like that’s the secret … I post every single day.”

Monari said timing plays a big role with their One Bite Stand content.

She explained that as a fast talker, it’s important to mind how long she speaks and find background music that can align with her cadence in videos, the length of which has been determined by trial and error.

“I try to really keep them to a minute because I know — I have an advertising background, that’s what I studied at Temple — and I know that, at the base of things … if you don’t catch their eye within the first … four or five seconds, they’re not going to stay,” Monari said. “Let alone stay for a minute and 30 seconds of a video.”

Peri said it’s best to keep clips even shorter, at five to 30 seconds.

“You don’t want it to be too long,” she said. “You don’t want it to drag out. You don’t want to put too much information in there. You don’t want to film the entire thing because then they don’t get to go and really have an experience — because they saw everything that you experienced all in one clip, if that makes sense.”

After working as a food influencer for about a decade, Sumer Moreau of Alburtis said she left her job as a claims adjustor last year to take on content creation and social media full time, managing social media for businesses as well. She has 83,000 followers for her foodie pages across Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

She said there was previously a negative connotation to influencers, citing footage of influencers standing on tables or being intrusive at restaurants, but that it has since improved now that people have become more familiar with the work.

“I think people are scared of new things,” Moreau said. “I think that we can see that across any industry. When a new thing comes, people usually hate it first. They usually want to talk badly about it first. They want to judge it first. A lot of things come from jealousy as well. People wish that they could do the thing.”

Authenticity is key

Because influencers can be both paid and unpaid when they work with organizations or businesses, how does one keep that feeling of authenticity? Balance and transparency, Petrignani said, even when the work is mutually beneficial.

He likes to give a positive outlook on parks and highlight the smaller details like renovations, but his work as a third-party influencer is typically unpaid and he will note if it is paid. He’ll provide constructive criticism as well.

“I also don’t let [paid work] kind of skew my opinion or give a positive bias to me for the park because I think it’s really important to remain authentic to viewers,” Petrignani said. “Because at least for me, I know I can tell when somebody feels like they’ve been bought out or they’ve been told to say something that they don’t necessarily believe.”

One Bite Stand sees a mix of paid and unpaid work, Monari said. She and Carire will pay their way if they go out to a restaurant on their own, and they’ll take paid gigs from people who reach out to them.

“Me and Marc, we stand by the fact that we will always be authentic,” she said. “This is why I’m very happy for my sales background though, because it’s all in how you say it. And I’m never going to — for lack of a better word, I’m sorry — s— on a small business just based off of my experience alone, you know what I mean? At the end of the day, the beauty of taste buds is that everyone has their own taste buds and everyone likes something different.”

Like Petrignani, Monari will also bring up constructive criticism in their content, especially for what the Lehigh Valley calls a “cheesesteak.”

“I’m from Philly, so cheesesteaks are a work of art down there, right?” she said. “I grew up eating cheesesteaks all the time. I know a good cheesesteak from a bad one. I don’t even want to say bad, but I know a good cheesesteak from a mediocre one. So up here, obviously cheesesteaks are a little bit different. Sometimes they have pizza sauce on them. That is not a cheesesteak. Please don’t call it that, right?”

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