You can now stalk the CIA back. At least within the realm of social media.

The government agency made its Twitter debut Friday afternoon with a self-mocking tweet that brought the account 50,000 followers in under 50 minutes.

The tweet, which combined a sense of humor with brand awareness--two key components for a successful social media strategy!--was retweeted over 280,000 times and drew thousands of responses from other Twitter accounts. Entrepreneurs and business leaders were among those who tweeted back at the CIA with a few jokes of their own.

Box CEO (and Inc's Entrepreneur of the Year) Aaron Levie:

Jeremiah Owyang, founder of Crowd Companies Council:

Howard Fineman, editorial director of Huffington Post Media Group:

Billy Chasen, founder of Turntable.fm:

Dana Brunetti, president of Trigger Street Productions (and Kevin Spacey's business partner):

And then there were brands like Denny's, which took advantage of the tweet's popularity to do some social media promotion of their own.

Given that the @CIA has now reached nearly 600,000 followers in the span of three days, it might not be a bad idea to spy on the account. You might uncover a few social media tips.