Anyone can get their 15 megabytes of fame thanks to social media, provided he or she creates great content. But do you have an employee who is also a social media rock star? You know, the one with 99,000 followers on Twitter and 200,000 fans on Facebook who care more about the employee himself than even his own boss does. The celebrity employee is someone in your company who has a great reputation apart from or in addition to your corporate brand.

The attention your employee gets may be good for your corporate brand and the employee himself. But what if the employee now sees himself as talent instead of as an average employee? When working with talent there are benefits and risks. Let’s take a look at what can go right and what can go wrong with having a celebrity employee.

The good: Customers get to connect with a live person in your organization, and this can increase brand awareness and customer service. The celebrity employee also brings credibility to your company that it may not have had before. And because the employee is in touch with the pulse of the customers, he can anticipate reactions to things like new products or policy changes. If there is ever a PR crisis, this employee can smooth things out as there is already a trust factor in place.

The bad: The employee may become so caught up in the celebrity status that he becomes uninterested in the day-to-day work and view the job as merely a stepping stone to something greater. He may become a free agent and decide to leave the company for another job, hence taking his or her following along.

The ugly: The celebrity employee may develop a following that’s more loyal to him than to your brand, and he may use his influence for personal gain rather than for your organization’s benefit. He may also publicly express an opinion that angers customers, and this would reflect badly on your company and hence create a PR crisis. He may also unknowingly reveal trade secrets.

If you have a celebrity employee in your midst, here are a couple of ways to manage this talent.

1) Get more people involved in social media in your company. This way, if one person leaves you won’t lose an entire segment of your conversations.

2) If the employee does decide to leave, don’t burn your bridges as you may have a relationship with a rising star here. You need each other more than you think. The employee attained “rock star” status in part because of the company he worked for, which gave him backing and authority to the public. But it was his own talent that took the company brand to the next level. Here everyone benefits, both the company and the employee.

The celebrity employee may be seen as a threat in one company, but viewed as a rock star in another. It’s just one more reason for every organization to consider social media in the future of their company.

Do share your views with us. Do you have a celebrity employee in your company, and how are you handling it?