Submitted by Carlee Mallard — Correspondent
Raleigh's own Krystal Harlow just snatched the first-ever Playboy "Miss Social" title from 15 other finalists and over 2,000 nominees. After spending most of her life growing up in Charlotte, she moved to Raleigh about a year and a half ago where she found a niche in modeling. "I was surprised that I met so many new people in Raleigh so fast," she said.
Aside from school (She is in her second year of an online Fashion Merchandising program at the International Academy of Design & Technology), Harlow loves to model and has been a fan of Playboy for more than 10 years. She heard about the contest as she "stumbled upon a Miss Social page on Facebook" and decided to nominate herself.
To win the contest, and therefore the prize of her dreams — a photo shoot with a professional Playboy photographer in Los Angeles — she used social networking to spread the word and garner more votes than any of the other finalists. Although she used a variety of social networks including Twitter, Facebook, and FourSquare to get votes, she attributes her win to her Facebook Fan Page, dramatic increase of Facebook friends (from 200 before the contest up to over 2,500 now), and good ole' fashioned street-teaming. "What really put me on top was this car wash for charity in downtown Raleigh," said Harlow, who ended up walking around after the car wash to different bars and clubs around downtown Raleigh telling people about the contest and asking for their votes.
Playboy will fly Harlow and a guest out to Los Angeles for three days where she'll get a first-hand tour of the Playboy Mansion, a Playboy photo shoot, an appearance on Playboy's Beach House TV show and an interview with Playboy Radio.
Follow her on Facebook and Twitter (@KrystalHarlow) to get updates and see photos and videos of her trip.
