Sean Benesh

11/26/2025

Bike races can do what ads cannot. They bring people into rural towns and let riders experience the place for themselves. When organizers highlight the community as intentionally as the course, they create the kind of tourism that lasts. These events become quiet engines of rural economic development.

11/25/2025

Over the past few years, I’ve spent a lot of time in rural towns working with gravel, road, and mountain bike races. One pattern keeps popping up. The best events are the ones where organizers treat the host town as a partner, not a backdrop.

In my latest article, I’m sharing why that matters and how organizers can build stronger races by investing in the communities that make them possible.

Race organizers can create stronger, more memorable events by championing the rural communities that host them. This article explores why local partnerships matter, how races support economic growth, and practical ways organizers can promote and collaborate with their host towns.

11/24/2025

I’ve been teaching Social Media & Analytics long enough to notice a pattern: most of us create content based on what we feel will perform well. I’ve done it too. Early on, I’d post something and just hope it landed.

But here’s the problem. Intuition alone will lie to you.

Sometimes what feels right completely misses what your audience actually cares about. I’ve seen this with rural towns trying to grow tourism and with race organizers trying to grow their events.

Data changes that. It's ok to be an analytics nerd.

When you start paying attention to what people click on, share, save, or talk about, you begin to see patterns. You learn which stories spark curiosity. You learn what your community wants more of. You learn what to stop doing.

If you’re trying to grow a gravel race, build a trail community, or put your small town on the map, data helps you figure out what’s working and what’s just noise.

11/20/2025

Trail organizations do world-class work. The problem is that most people never see it.

Visibility matters. It affects volunteer recruitment, sponsor interest, and even your credibility with land managers.

My new article breaks down why social media is essential for trail stewardship and how small volunteer-led groups can use simple storytelling to make their work visible.

Some time ago, I joined a small volunteer crew on a Saturday morning in a location far from home in Portland. The kind of group you find in almost every town. Three regulars. Two new faces. A part-time trail steward who was also filling the role of event coordinator, social media manager, grant writ...

11/12/2025

What happens when a town invests in trails instead of waiting for a lumber mill or mine to reopen?

Across rural America, trails are creating both direct and indirect jobs, supporting trail builders, guides, restaurants, and local businesses while attracting new residents and investment.

From Arkansas to West Virginia, communities are proving that trail building is recreation and economic development working hand in hand.

What happens when a town invests in trails instead of waiting for a logging mill or mine to reopen? Across rural America, trails are creating jobs, fueling small businesses, and helping towns find new life. From Arkansas to West Virginia, communities are proving that trail building is not just recre...

11/11/2025

Looking over my teaching notes for Social Media and Analytics, I came across this quote ... “To effectively reach someone, you need to speak a language they understand. Content has to connect with people before they’re going to share it with others.”

To reach people, you have to speak a language they understand. If you’re a race organizer, who do you attract both elite-level racers as well as those looking to race for the very first time?

11/10/2025

One of the questions I get asked often is, “Which social media platforms do I need to be on?”

When it comes to promoting your town or region for rural tourism, not every social media platform is equal, and you don’t need to be on all of them.

Each one reaches a different audience:

▪️Facebook: Still the most widely used among adults 35+, great for community updates, events, and civic engagement.
▪️Instagram: Best for storytelling and showcasing your town’s feel ... its places, people, and moments.
▪️X (Twitter): Works for news updates and connecting with journalists and state agencies.
▪️LinkedIn: Ideal for economic development, business attraction, and sharing wins with peer communities.
▪️TikTok & YouTube: Reaching younger travelers means video ... show your community in motion.

The goal isn’t to post everywhere. It’s about knowing who your target audience is and being where they already are. Show them why your community is worth noticing.

11/07/2025

Each week, I’m revisiting my teaching notes from the Social Media and Analytics course I taught in the spring. The content I’m looking at today is from the lecture “Creating Content for Your Target Audience.”

I’ve learned that sharing information isn’t enough. You have to find a hook ... something that makes people stop, lean in, and care (spoiler: it’s not always video content).

That starts with figuring out what makes you different. What makes your story, your brand, your message worth listening to?

It’s not about being louder. It’s about being clear. Relevant. Human.

Every project I’ve worked on, from small towns trying to attract visitors to cycling race organizers growing signups, always comes back to that same question: why should anyone care?

When you find that answer, that’s your hook.

11/06/2025

Across the U.S., small towns are learning what places like Oakridge, Oregon, already proved: trails can breathe life into communities once dependent on extraction-based industries.

A 2025 Trust for Public Land report found that mountain biking generates $416 per visitor trip and supports hundreds of jobs when trail systems are built and maintained at scale.

The impact runs deeper than tourism dollars.

▪️Direct jobs come from trail builders, guides, shuttle operators, restaurants, and breweries.
▪️Indirect jobs come when trails make a place more livable, attracting new residents, entrepreneurs, and investment.

It’s the same multiplier effect economists found with companies like Microsoft: every new job creates more around it. Trails do that for towns.

Trails do more than give people a place to ride. They build the kind of infrastructure that keeps small-town economies alive.

Read more: https://www.seanbenesh.com/blog/the-anatomy-of-a-trail-town-how-grants-pass-is-building-its-future-on-dollar-mountain/

11/05/2025

Grants Pass, Oregon, is emerging as the state’s next trail town. The new Dollar Mountain Trail System, 11 miles of new singletrack minutes from downtown, is a story of collaboration between city leaders, Visit Grants Pass, and RVMBA, and a glimpse at how trails can shape a community’s future.

The new Dollar Mountain Trail System is transforming Grants Pass, Oregon, into a trail town. Learn how local partnerships, small businesses, and 11 new miles of new singletrack are helping this southern Oregon community grow its outdoor recreation economy and redefine its identity around trails.

11/05/2025

One of the things I love about teaching social media and being in the classroom with university students is that it's a constant reminder of the power of these platforms. Then I think about social media and rural communities ...

Why does social media matter for rural tourism? It's free marketing. You don't have to use paid ads. It forces you to create engaging content and practice storytelling.

11/04/2025

We hear it all the time: trails create jobs. But what does that actually look like in practice? What kind of jobs are we talking about?