How to Start and Grow an Intelligence Based Social Media Account
In this multi-part series, I'll answer the question I often get asked, "How do you start an intelligence (or news) based social media page?" Since the inception of ALCON.S2, here's what I've learned.
Background
I started ALCON.S2 over on Instagram at the start of 2022. I started it anonymously, with no prior following, and it has since grown to an account with over 23.7k followers. Since then, it has led to me appearing on podcasts, starting my own podcast, business opportunities and now this Stack. I often get asked how to start something similar, that being an intelligence/news-based platform. Rather than say the same thing over and over again to multiple different people - I’ll lay it all out here, so that you might one day find success in something similar and have the opportunities I’ve been lucky enough to experience so far. The steps below, may or may not be in the most logical order (as it’s just a brain dump) but I do believe that if you follow them, have a bit of patience, you’ll succeed.
Step One - Why?
As cliché as it sounds, you NEED to have a why. Because when you start out, and you’re getting zero likes, zero follows and having no reach, you’ll fizzle out. I guarantee it. I personally hate the question, “What’s your Why?” but it really is so important if you want to give this a go.
I had my ‘why’ without really considering it a vital thing when I started. I essentially started ALCON for selfish reasons. I was still serving in the military and had just posted out of a unit that was high-tempo with all levels of access. I was to post to the School of Military Intelligence and by nature of my role at the school, I knew I would lose access and would no longer be ‘in-the-know’. So I simply wanted an engaging way for me to keep myself informed on the Indo-Pacific, where I didn’t have to solely rely on the evening news - this lead to the birth of ALCON.S2, on Instagram. From there I just posted and experimented, I didn’t care that I was getting hardly any likes or follows because I was doing it for me. Nobody else. A fun way to keep myself informed - that was my ‘Why’.
So what do you need to do? Well, you don’t need to get philosophical about it, you just need something solid enough to motivate you to keep going. I didn’t plan or write anything like this down, I just had an intrinsic drive to do something, did the thing, and have kept going. To give you a steer, your ‘Why’ could be something like:
I want a fun way to keep tabs on a certain part of the world (or conflict, intel discipline, tradecraft etc..)
I want to a way to showcase my writing while educating people
‘X’ topic is really important to me and I think other people need to be informed on it
I want to establish myself as an online authority on XYZ topic.
My dream is to run an online news media agency, I’ll start on social media
It could quite literally be anything, but make sure you try and have something behind you to keep you going when you aren’t getting the dopamine hit through likes.
ACTION STEP
STEP 1: Establish your ‘Why’
Make sure you have a solid reason why. Because starting out is tough if what you’re looking for is growth. This is a long game - having a strong ‘Why’ will keep you going. Your ‘Why’ could literally be anything, just make sure you aren’t doing it solely for clout (likes/follows).

Step 2 - Riches in the Niches
One thing I see a lot these days are similar initiatives like ALCON.S2, but they are just broad news aggregation accounts. Which is totally fine if that’s what you want to do! However, I believe the true value is in carving out a niche for yourself. Reason why is because it helps you stand out from the crowd as well as keeping it manageable. I would personally struggle to be a one-man global intelligence agency, especially if I wanted to do any sort of meaningful analysis.
When I started, my niche was grey zone events in the Pacific, where I published reports with my own first-line analysis or ‘So What?’ Admittedly, I was quite ignorant as I didn’t have a clue as to what was already out there, but I quickly found out that I filled gap amongst the wider “social intelligence community”. I think that you need to do the same if you want any sort of meaningful growth and to become an authority on a particular topic. Some ideas to name a few:
Domestic National Security
Monitoring Islamic Terrorism
Monitoring Extremism
South East Asian Geopolitics
Myanmar is a good one.
Africa Geopolitics and Conflict
I’d go all-in on Mali and the Sahel.
I personally think Ukraine as well as China-Taiwan are becoming overreported, so if you filled any of the above niches (or came up with your own) - I would be guaranteed to follow and share your stuff.
ACTION STEP
STEP 2: ESTABLISH A NICHE
Having a niche will ensure you stand out from the crowd and it’ll be easier to stay dialed in. I recommend staying away from Ukraine or China - Taiwan, as those are very overreported.
Step 3 - Platform Content
Now, I was going to go deep on what platform you should start posting on but I’m not going to go into that. This is because my primary platform in Instagram (slowly moving into Substack), and because I don’t actually think it matters what you choose. All platforms have their pro’s and con’s, and Instagram was the right fit for me. I will say this though: Ultimately, you do not own your account - the platform owns it. So you need to be mindful of the content you post. Anything too graphic will cop you a shadowban or worse. Which leads me to the next step: content.
I think this is less about the what but more about the style. In my experience, what works well are engaging imagery with one key point followed by a longer form report in the caption (if your platform allows it). I structure mine like this:
Image with catchy headline with engaging caption from the report at the bottom of the image. Background will be an image relevant enough to the topic your posting.
Underneath the image in the caption, I’ll put a paraphrased version of the report followed by my own really quick opinion or analysis on it. Followed by no more than FIVE hashtags. Apparently this works better within the algorithm. Excuse the grammar in the below screenshot - I posted this after a couple of beers.
From time to time, you could do more deliberate posts. I sometimes do these as multiple slides, like when I did ‘8 Principles of Unrestricted Warfare’ where I posted one principle per slide.
I would avoid cluttering the images with walls of text (unless you’re on Twitter). Remember that people are likely reading these reports on their phones - so keep that in mind when designing your posts.
I use canva.com to design my posts. The free version is useable enough, and in many cases it trumps photoshop. Highly recommend!
Add your own spin to the reporting. I highly recommend you provide some sort of opinion or analysis to each report, otherwise you’re just repeating the news. Find your voice and put it out there.
ACTION STEP
STEP 3: DECIDE ON YOUR CONTENT
Keep images/video engaging to the eye
Save text for captions
Use no more than five hashtags
Use canva.com to design (if you have zero photoshop skills)
Avoid text clutter in images, unless on a platform that warrants it
Add your own spin to the report. Add value through opinion or analysis - have a voice.
Summary
I’ll wrap this one up and continue this series in a few days. If you’re involved in - or have an interest in - similar accounts to ALCON then I really do encourage you to start one up. Coming from the intelligence community, there is so much value to be had when we all share knowledge and discuss the world around us. It may seem daunting at first, but once you get some traction it becomes really rewarding. Trust me, if I can do it - you can too.
In the next part, I’ll discuss the following steps:
Overcoming Self-Doubt (corny I know, but I found out it is a very real thing)
Security Considerations
First Step to Growth
All the best,
Cole // ALCON S2
I know AI is useful, and I do use it for captions etc. This is even though I can write very well, but it's just a time saver. The whole "not enough hours in the day" thing...