Harrison Kratz

Bio:

Harrison is exploring New York as the founder of the social good campaign Tweet Drive, a Mashable-noted global initiative where volunteers use social media to organize meet ups where community members come together during the holidays to raise money and toys for children. Harrison also works at 2tor, inc. and is the Community Manager for the MBA@UNC, an online MBA program delivered by the University of North Carolina.

Harrison is from Philadelphia and is a die-hard Philadelphia sports fan despite the consistent heartbreak. Having recently left school to pursue his career in social media, Harrison has also founded Engage TV, the #PRStudCast, and ran Kratz PR, his own PR consultant firm while still a student.

• Title: Founder, Tweet Drive and Community Manager, MBA@UNC
• Age: 21
• Location: Chelsea
• Contact: @kratzpr

You’re a big proponent of social entrepreneurship.  Outside of your own work, who do you see as someone who is “doing it right” or that sets a great example for others?

I know one of the main inspirations for Tweet Drive was Twestival. Their founder, Amanda Rose has done an incredible job at building a global community through social media while still keeping their core values in tact. I'm always finding new ways to learn from her and the Twestival campaign.

What’s the number one challenge that you encounter while running an initiative such as Tweet Driver run by strictly volunteers?  How do you overcome it?

The number one obstacle is time. Tweet Drive could easily be a full-time job for myself and many of our volunteers, but that just isn't practical at this point. With that, it takes a lot of planning and attention to detail to ensure that our limited resources and time are put to the best use possible. We find new ways to be efficient every day so that our volunteers can execute and not pull themselves away from their regular positions too much.

You’re the Community Manager for the online MBA program for the University of North Carolina.  What are your responsibilities as Community Manager for the program?  What online tools do you use in this position?

As a community manager, I wear many hats. I manage our Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts as well as manage our site's blog content and overall SEO execution. I also manage our event sponsorships and keep an eye on how we are building relationships offline. Being from a PR background, I also support our PR team as much as I can with their efforts.