We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet.

— CIA (@CIA) June 6, 2014

Admist fears for running out of content and concern for security of classified material, getting the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States on Twitter was almost a clandestine operation all it’s own. Carolyn Reams and Preston Golson of the the CIA were able to not only bring the CIA into the social media world, but also really make a mark with excellent content. In order to get on Twitter in the first place, they had to convince both the agency and the public that it was appropriate. They had to ask themselves, “Are we or are we not a clandestine organization?”

The answer was yes and no. The CIA does believe strongly in the need to inform the public. “Contrary to popular belief, we do more than say ‘no comment’ all day,” Golson said.

From inception of the idea to the first tweet, it took 11 months to get the CIA on social media. Golson and Reams had to look at the risks and decide how to mitigate those risks. Reams’ job was to explore the options with social media, develop a complete understanding of the risks involved and the make it happen.

As such a visible, though private, operation of the government, Reams and Golson had a few impending concerns: “Will we run out of interesting things to say? Will being on social media make people take us less seriously? Will we be able to navigate an ever changing social media landscape? What if something gets misinterpreted? What if we start an international incident?”

Despite all of these concerns, Golson and Reams saw that the benefits outweighed the risks. With about a dozen fake accounts already purporting to be the CIA, it was important to get on Twitter and have a voice.

“Conversations happen with or without us,” Golson said. “We need to have a voice out there.”

Content strategy for the account includes an intention to provide the public with declassified and historical information. This includes links back to website content and sharing facts and artifacts.

“The mission of the office is to explain our mission to the public,” Reams said. “We’re really just trying to humanize the CIA.”

Some of this content includes reporting on public speaking events by CIA Director Brennan as well as highlighting jobs within the agency. Golson and Reams want to help people understand the business of intelligence, the issues going on within the agency and its issues of workforce diversity and progress.

“We want to tell the stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things,” Golson said.

The CIA Twitter account has gained a reputation for being relevant, interesting and funny. Reams attributes a lot of that success to having a consistent voice.

“If I can’t link it back to intel, I won’t do it. I’m still trying to figure out how to talk about national doughnut day,” Reams said.

The very first tweet on the account, which said, “We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet,” is the second highest retweeted inaugural tweet ever.

“We ended up getting 1,000 followers a minute,” Reams said. “It was very very well received, but how do we keep going? How to we feed the beast?”

Reams likes to think of Twitter content like a museum exhibit. Museum content is successful because it’s accessible and easy to understand. She thinks of visitors as skimmers, swimmers and divers. For skimmers, the most important parts of the story is told in a couple of tweets with an interesting picture or graphic. A link back to the CIA website lets swimmers read the full story. For divers they make sure articles have links to other articles on the site written on the topic. With this method, Reams is able to show superiors that everything is thoroughly and thoughtfully curated.

“Show management you’ve thought things through,” Reams said. “We’re very thoughtful about everything we put out. We’re constantly reevaluating what we’re doing. You have to be honest with yourself as well as your management for what could possibly happen.”

Reams and Golson hope to continue the success of the CIA Twitter account. Thankfully followers are loving the CIA history and archive content they are able to provide.

“For me the best feedback is when we put something out there and someone says, ‘wow that was really interesting thanks for sharing.’ When we can inform them somehow, that’s what is important to us,” Reams said.