At any given moment you can find someone like the top official on Latin America tweeting in Spanish about his latest trip to Peru, or Clinton posting podcasts on the State Department website and soliciting questions from the public on the State Department's blog, Dipnote.

Beneath the Web atmospherics is what Ross, Clinton's "innovation" guru, calls "21st century statecraft."

Ross, a 40-year-old former technology adviser to Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, is at the forefront of a push by Clinton to use technology and social media as a diplomatic tool.

Since taking office, Clinton has made the spread of information technology and Internet freedom a cornerstone of her foreign policy, hoping both will serve as catalysts for spreading democracy.

Currently, with the 30 day window, the review usually takes fewer than two days. Going forward, it will probably be even shorter than that in practice, Ross said. He added that the new guidelines would not increase the number of social media posts that are reviewed.

"We just want to provide an outside window by which employees are promised a response, Ross said.