Just Google it.

It's always exciting when there's someone new to engage on Twitter. Especially if that person is a celebrity and has the number of followers you dream of. 

It's also exciting when your CEO is excited about this person (and about social media in general) and asks you to tweet or RT said celebrity. 

I know what you are thinking. "But my CEO told me to! You don't understand how long we've wanted him to embrace social media and here he is tweeting excitedly!" 

I know. But I do understand. Nothing is worse than having to deflate someone's balloon. Well, actually there IS something worse. Watching your community unravel thanks to one badly timed tweet on your part.

If you don't do a little recon work before you tweet - you don't know what lurks under the surface.

Google the person of interest. We aren't talking a full background report-don't get dramatic. Just a simple Google search. Look at the recent news that comes up. Were they arrested recently? Are there scandalous videos posted of them? Did they tweet something homophobic that's blown up all over Twitter? 

Digital Community Managers are entrusted to manage a positive digital brand. The last thing you want is to have your brand tarnished because someone else did something stupid on social media. It's hard enough trying to control your own stupidity online, nevermind the rest of the world.

It's your job to make your company look good. Trust me, it's much better to respond to your CEO with:

"Actually, Betty Boop is currently doing damage control for a tweet she sent out drunkenly last night that offended MOST of America. We don't think it would be a good idea to engage her on Twitter right now" 

Than to have to respond with this:

"Sorry we lost that $2.4 million contract. We didn't know Komen didn't support Planned Parenthood on Wednesday of this week. Sorry for tweeting that we love Komen. Won't happen again."

Who you tweet with is just as important as what you tweet about.