Meet this week’s Campus Celebrity! The person behind the UNH Confessions Facebook page is finally being revealed. With the site at over 12 thousand likes, this is the typical UNH student’s go-to page for insight and a lot of laughs. A place where students (or even faculty) privately message a concern, a photo, a video or a confession that is then anonymously posted, has proved to be a great source of enertainment as well as a (sometimes) informational one. Continue reading this week’s exclusive interview to finally learn who is behind UNH Confessions!
How did you get this position?
I looked at a different school who had one, searched UNH Confessions, wasn’t there, then created it.
How hard has it been to stay anonymous?
At first, I had my name on the front of the page, then I deleted it, and it was too late at that point. My Freshman year people would call me out on it, a lot. Sophomore year, some people still did. Now Junior year once in a blue moon. I wan’t to be known for what I created, which is weird to say for a page that expresses anonymity.
How many messages do you get per year?
Freshman year – 11,245 submissions
Sophomore year – 6,093 submissions
Junior year – 1,320 submissions
What I’ve realized my Junior year is that there’s other sources for content and I can still please my audience with my social media implementation.
Have you ever been messaged by faculty?
I’ve seen a couple of submissions from teachers actually claiming they have read it. Also, I have heard of friends saying “my teacher just read confessions in lecture.” I have been contacted by the Durham PD maybe three times, but those we’re resolved.
How much time a week do you spend posting from the account?
Facebook now has a schedule post feature where you can post and it’ll appear any time you want so I’ve been using that to save time, but I’d say two hours each week.
Where do you draw the line in filtering what you post?
I’ll post anything noteworthy but nothing that includes violence, racism, or peoples names in a subjective manner.
Have you yourself posted any confessions?
I’ve posted hundreds… shh.
What was the most memorable confession you received?
Probably my Freshman year when the Boston bombing happened. There was a picture that surfaced of a UNH student helping out on scene and I instantly posted it and it went viral. At that point I knew the potential of social media.
Is this a role you will be passing down?
I’m always going to own the page but I have a couple of team members ranging from web development to graphic designers all the way to my girlfriend posting confessions, who are helping me launch unhconfessions.com next fall. After the website is up I’m going to go all out and teach a Freshman my strategies and help run it until his/her Senior year, and so forth.
Here are some of the most popular posts that have surfaced in the last couple years:
Coming in at over 4000 “likes”, a UNH Wildcat helping on the scene after the Boston Marathon bombings.
When a fellow Wildcat had money stollen, UNH Confessions set up a successful fundraising page.
Basically.
A photo every single one of us can relate to.
“The table has turned”
And for the moment we have all been waiting for, the person behind it all…
Name: Michael Brian Barnard
Year: 2016
Hometown: Scituate, MA
Major: Psychology
Clubs/Activities: None