STRATEGIC PLAN: EXPANDING CIA'S ONLINE PRESENCE

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06468165
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: March 16, 2022
• Document Release Date: July 6, 2016
• Case Number: F-2015-01490
• Publication Date: March 1, 2014

Approved for Release: 2016/06/22 C06468165
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Strategic Plan: Expanding CIA's Online Presence
March 2014
Version 1.5
Purpose
S In an ongoing effort to continue to grow and improve CIA's internet presence for
recruitment and public relations purposes, CIA will be further expanding
into Social Media.
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Background
(U) CIA.gov is one of the most popular websites in the Intelligence Community. In 2007,
the Office of Public Affairs (OPA) � under the direction of then Associate Deputy
Director Michael Morel! � led the first large-scale redesign of CIA.gov, transforming a
web presence that was disparate, uncoordinated, and difficult to navigate into a
renowned, streamlined, unified, and user-friendly singular corporate website. Building
off the success of the website redesign � and in an attempt to remain current and meet
visitor expectation -- the CIA.gov Web Team launched RSS feeds, its initial venture into
the world of social media. (b)(3)
(UHAIU0) In 2010, the Web Team had permission from then-DCIA Leon Panetta to
move forward with social media. Of the four platforms socialized and approved, the
CIA.gov Web Team moved forward to quickly launch the two platforms
In early
2011, CIA officially launched its YouTube and Flickr pages.
(S) In 2013, as the Web Team began briefing the new senior leadership on its most
recent redesign initiative, several Senior Agency Officers asked why CIA is not on
Twitter. This
prompted OPA to reignite the social media program.
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(U) Currently, the CIA.gov Web Team is working to implement Twitter, Facebook, and
Google+, with the eventual addition of Instagram.
Guiding Principles
For most people, the only encounter they will have with the Agency is through
its online presence. This includes prospective employees, the general public,
Starting with the redesign of CIA.gov in 2007, followed by the first foray into
social media in 2011, and through today the CIA.gov Web Team follows these guiding
principles:
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� Educate the public about the agency and its mission; (b)(3)
� Recruit top talent.
� Dispel myths;
� Provide educational resources about the world to the world;
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(U) The Agency's current endeavor to more fully develop our internet presence also
aligns with the regulations set forth by the Federal Web Managers Council, as well as
meeting the 2009 Presidential Directive, "Transparency and Open Government."
Expanding our use of social media platforms is one way to achieve the goals of
President Obama's directive.
Audience
The CIA.gov Web Team keeps many different audiences in mind when
eve loping and posting content: prospective employees, former
employees, students, teachers, reporters, citizens around the globe, among others.
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(U) OPA recognizes that people have moved away from visiting websites to "surf' for
information. They expect the content to come to them. In the last three years, the
average number of visitors a month to CIA.gov is down from 5 million to 4 million, while
all demographics of people joining and participating in social media sites has exploded
and continues to grow by leaps and bounds. For CIA to stay relevant in the public eye
and continue to follow our guiding principles, we must go to where people are looking
for us.
Benefits
(U) The foray into social media was, and continues to be, very important on three main
fronts:
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Recruitment
(U) The Recruitment Center is responsible for creating a future CIA workforce with the
mission-critical skills, diverse experiences, and language capabilities we need to
respond nimbly to the intelligence demands of tomorrow. To this end, they are working
to increase the percentage of our officers from ethnic and minority backgrounds, as well
as those with relevant foreign languages. The RC uses targeted recruitment strategies
to identify sources of qualified applicants who have the languages and knowledge of the
cultures of the world with which we engage.
(S)CIA's online presence is a large part of that strategy. Approximately 20 percent of
traffic to CIA.gov is to the careers section. CIA.gov is the only place prospective
employees can apply for a job. However, if we want the workforce of (b)(1)
the future, we must recruit them where they work and play and search � social media. (b)(3)
As CIA strives to recruit the best and brightest, we must go where they are, and
increasingly that is not CIA.gov. By utilizing social media, we expand our audience and
reach potential recruits that may have not entertained the idea of working for CIA.
Public Affairs
(U) OPA's mission is to inform and educate, helping the public gain a better
understanding of CIA and its contributions to America's national security. One of the
ways we do this is through our internet presence. CIA.gov averages 4 million visits each
month. However, following the trend of less traffic to web pages, we are down from the
peak in 2012 of 5 million visits a month.
(U) Approximately 60 percent of CIA.gov's traffic goes solely to the World Factbook,
which means the majority of our visitors are missing the tens of thousands of other
pages of content available. This includes press releases, D/CIA statements and
speeches, featured stories, job opportunities, artifacts, publications, games, declassified
documents, and much more. A presence on the most popular social media sites will
allow the CIA.gov Web Team to bring important and compelling information to the
public. This helps us better achieve our goal of providing up-to-date, accurate content to
convey the Agency's brand and key messages to a broad audience. Internet expansion
will also help us better meet the President's Transparency and Open Government
Directive.
(U) The CIA.gov Web Team understand the public's need for authentic content and they
join social media sites to get content directly from the source without having to look for
it. Evidenced in the many popular unofficial CIA accounts on various social media
platforms over the years, conversations about CIA are happening even if we are not
active participants. It is imperative that CIA becomes the official voice of CIA-related
matters.
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(U) Additionally, it is criticality importation for CIA to communicate our messages without
media filter. Social media platforms afford us the opportunity to speak directly to a large
. . . .
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(U) While Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ will be launched in the near future, the Web
Team continues to pursue the possibility of using lnstagram. lnstagram is a photo- and
video-sharing mobile application that enables users to take pictures and videos, apply
digital filters to them, and share them through the app and on a variety of other social
networking services such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr. While social media is
growing in popularity across all demographics, it has become increasingly apparent that
pre-teens, teens, and young adults are shying away from "traditional" social media
outlets such as Facebook. They instead are gravitating toward more media-based
platforms like lnstagram
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(U) The Web Team continues to monitor industry standards and global trends, and will
investigate new ways to grow and improve CIA's internet presence for
recruitment and public relations purposes. The Web Team monitors internet trends and
benchmarks with other government agencies and throughout the social media industry
for best practices and effective ideas. We will continue to develop and advance CIA's
internet presence through platforms and initiatives we can safely and securely adopt at
CIA.
Communications Plan
Internal and External Promotion for the launch of CIA on Twitter, Facebook, and
Google+
Goals & Objectives
(U) Provide an internal and global communications strategy for the roll out of
Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ in May 2014. The goal is to provide as much
coverage of the launch of the CIA accounts on these platforms as possible.
There will not be any pre-deployment communication, but much media
attention during and after launch is anticipated.
Background
(U) In an ongoing effort to continue to grow and improve CIA's internet presence
for recruitment and public relations purposes CIA will be further expanding into
Social Media with accounts on Facebook, Google+ and two on Twitter.
(U) CIA.gov is one of the most popular websites in the Intelligence Community. In
2007, the Office of Public Affairs (OPA)� under the direction of then Associate
Deputy Director Michael Morel! � led the first large-scale redesign of CIA.gov,
transforming a web presence that was disparate, uncoordinated, and difficult to
navigate into a renowned, streamlined, unified and user-friendly singular
corporate website. Building off the success of the website redesign � and in an
attempt to remain current and meet visitor expectation --the CIA.gov Web Team
launched RSS feeds, its initial venture into the world of social media.
(UHAIU0) In 2010, the Web Team had permission from then-DCIA Leon Panetta
to move forward with social media. Of the four platforms socialized and
approved, the CIA.gov Web Team moved forward to quickly launch the two
platforms
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and Flickr.
In early 2011, CIA officially launched its YouTube
(U) In 2013, as the Web Team began briefing the new senior leadership on its
most recent redesign initiative, several Senior Agency Officers asked why CIA is
not on Twitter. This prompted OPA to reignite the social media program.
(U) For most people, the only encounter they will have with the Agency is through
its online presence. This includes prospective employees and the general public.
(U) Starting with the redesign of CIA.gov in 2007, followed by the first foray into
social media in 2011, and through today the CIA.gov Web Team follows these
guiding principles:
� Educate the public about the agency and its mission;
� Dispel myths;
� Provide educational resources about the world to the world;
� Recruit top talent.
(U) The Agency's current endeavor to more fully develop our internet presence
also aligns with the regulations set forth by the Federal Web Managers Council,
as well as meeting the 2009 Presidential Directive, "Transparency and Open
Government." Expanding our use of social media platforms is one way to achieve
the goals of President Obama's directive.
(U) OPA recognizes that people have moved away from visiting websites to "surf"
for information. They expect the content to come to them. In the last three years,
the average number of visitors a month to CIA.gov is down from 5 million to 4
million, while all demographics of people joining and participating in social media
sites has exploded and continues to grow by leaps and bounds. For CIA to stay
relevant in the public eye and continue to follow our guiding principles we must
go to where people are looking for us.
To highlight our foray into the most popular social media platforms CIA must
effectively communicate where we can be found. As CIA is expanding on to
these highly recognizable and extremely popular platforms, the promotion
campaign must be equally extensive.
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