There is a story about AF447 that very few people know--too few people. This is a story about Tim Van Waard, who is based in The Netherlands and was the original owner of @KLM on Twitter.
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He had a pretty quiet life until June 1 2009 and the disappearance of AF447. Within hours thousands of people were trying to get information. Air France, quite rightly, was saying nothing. But on Twitter, @KLM was linking to information and helping people get whatever news there was. The thing is, Tim was not and has never been employed by KLM. He did this all because it was the "right thing" to do. It was after the crash that KLM realized what Tim had created and done for them and their partner Air France. They asked him for the account and he handed it to them without asking for anything in return.
The lessons for corporations the world over are clear: if you don't have your own brand name on social media, you better hope and pray that its in the hands of somebody like Tim. Chances are, of course, this is highly unlikely. This is a great story about how a decent man, who did the honorable thing for thousands of strangers, without any thought for compensation. We need more like him.
Take a listen here: http://bit.ly/cWFruN
This post is syndicated with permission from Addison Schonland's IAGblog Podcasts site.