Benson Hendrix dot Com

Hit me up: benson at bensonhendrix dot com

Photo Credit - Mark Bralley

Benson Hendrix is a Social Media Lackey/King of his World (although his official title is “Public Relations Specialist”) for the University of New Mexico’s Communications and Marketing Department. Hired to help the university move forward with part of its new media program, he is one of the people behind the camera and microphone for UNM Live – the university’s audio podcast and YouTube site.

Hendrix has been called everything from a “social media zen warrior” to “the PR love child of Henry Rollins and Anthony Bourdain,” but doesn’t really believe any of it. A 2006 graduate of the University of New Mexico (PR and New Media), Hendrix loves working with social media tools to help organizations and people tell the stories that are important to them.  And more than anything, Benson Hendrix hates talking about himself in the third person, so enough of this nonsense…

I work in public relations, media relations and multimedia/new media content at the University of New Mexico. In addition to this, I’m one of the university’s social media peeps (I don’t like the idea of evangelists, or “gurus”, or super-experts.) After years of sitting in front of a computer, I mean.. studying and working hard in the Internet Communications realm, I’ve developed a passion for creatively using new media tools, as well as traditional media, to communicate messages and create engaging community relations to solve problems. I enjoy creatively tackling problems and trying to keep organizations from acting like jerks online or off.

OK, this is the part on Sprockets where we dance… or discuss what is best in life. Well, the biggest passion in my life is my wife, with rugby and powerlifting coming in a distant second. I played rugby, or attempted to (thanks to injuries), through college and I’m still passionate about the game and write about it often, and occasionally videoblog about it. I’ve been asked to discuss PR, social media, or the present and future of online life at conferences and luncheons every once in a while – and have always tried to keep the audience amused, whether it involves wearing a kilt, luchador mask, or both. I’m interested in movie making and hope I have a few documentaries in me in the next few years, and I’m sure you’ll be seeing me on Kickstarter in the near future.

(And in case you can’t tell, there are times that I’m a bit of a wise-guy, life is way too short to be serious all of the time.)