One of the partners at Trinity asked my good friend and colleague Andrew Martin and I to share insight on how to transition the habit of posting on a Facebook group to a Whisper's mobile app. For more go to: www.behaviordesigns.com

1. Whisper App Help ­ Andrew & David
Background:
Gus has been a personal mentor of ours (David & Andrew) for two years now. Two years ago, we met Gus
at our final presentation in our Behavior Design class with Dr. BJ Fogg. Last summer, we were interns at
Trinity doing design work (rapid prototypes, UI/UX analysis and mockups) for several of their portfolio
companies. Two weeks ago we organized our 2nd Trinity dinner with interesting Stanford students with
Gus, Ajay, and James. This is where Stanford Confessions was brought up.
Two main questions that Gus wanted us to answer:
1) Why has Stanford Confessions gained traction
2) How to move Stanford Confessions (FB Page) to Whisper app
1) Why has Stanford Confessions gained so much traction?
(https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stanford­Confessions/372644179500230)
Stanford confessions FB Page is the only mainstream outlet for Stanford students to speak their minds
anonymously. The Stanford culture is that everyone is happy, no one is politically incorrect, etc. In other
words, everyone hides the negatives and superficially puts on a front even when they’re not happy.
Community is huge ­­ only those with a stanford.edu email can post (in the latest iteration). Also, students
can see actual people who they know reply to posts.
2) How to move Stanford Confessions (FB Page) to Whisper app
Acquiring Users: The students who most want to post or read Stanford confessions are already doing so on
the Stanford Confessions FB Page.
You need to get buy­in from the gatekeeper ­­ the owner of the FB page. Get them on board (persuade only
1 person), then together you guys can move the FB page to the app. Imagine getting support from the FB
page owner, they post on Stanford Confessions saying “We’re starting to move our posts to the Whisper
App for X, Y, Z compelling reasons.” Some will convert immediately. Late adopters will need more triggers;
thus, the Stanford Whisper posts must continue to be updated on the Facebook Page for late­adopters.
Building a Community: Currently Whisper opens up any posts to the entire world. At least from our point of
view, reading these secrets from completely random people aren’t nearly as interesting as reading secrets
from people in the Stanford community on Stanford Confessions. Obviously there is something just
inherently more interesting to us about reading “It’s been exactly three years since my cancer went into
remission” if someone from the Stanford community had posted it, than some rando on Whisper.
One of the biggest reasons why Stanford Confessions is getting so much traction is because only Stanford
students are allowed to post. The public can see the posts, but can’t interact with them. To solve this,
Whisper needs to create “communities” on the app (Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, etc). We think the most
compelling communities to begin with would be colleges and high schools.