I came across an interesting article on the German newspaper website “Die Welt” explaining an incredible social media success. But not the marketing kind.. the social kind.
The social networking site Facebook managed to save a French company from complete collapse. After the suicide of the French shipyard owner Joel Gamelin in La Rochelle, his company faces a collapse and salaries were unlikely to be paid. In his suicide note the father leaves a note for his daughter Fanny Gamelin saying he’s sorry for having been unable to save the company from bankrupcy.
His daughter took the opportunity and published with the help of the family lawyer a press release on Facebook on the 23rd February 2009, pleading for people to donate 1 Euro each, in order to be able to pay for the salaries. Within days alone they managed to collect 201,000 Euros from 6,795 generous people via Paypal. The workers of the shipyard have already been paid and the rest of the money will also be set aside for the employees. This is the first time (at least as far as I know) that a social network has been able to help a cause, whereby actually banks and the government have been replaced.
This only shows how powerful social networks can be, something which should not only be exploited for marketing purposes but the greater good.
That was a bit deep 
