Insight certainty 3/5 debate potential 2/5

Small human moments were key to Duolingo's viral TikTok growth

Zaria Parvez · Zaria Parvez: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers & How to Create Viral Content | E1105 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Jan 19, 2024 · at 4:01

Zaria Parvez is Duolingo's Senior Global Social Media Manager, discussing how the team transitioned from standard brand social posts to viral mascot content.

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“No brand was doing it yet. And I think that was kind of our insight. And it was like these small human moments that I think has made our TikTok kind of blow up.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

More from Zaria Parvez

Opinion
Duolingo's real competitors are TikTok and social media, not Babbel
“And I'm a firm believer, and I know our CEO said this too, that I don't think like Babbel or Rosetta Stone or other language learning places are our actual competitors. Like our real competitors are like TikTok. And other social media platforms that are like t…”
Zaria Parvez Jan 19, 2024 ▶ 5:11 Zaria Parvez: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers & How to Create Viral Content | E1105 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
What-if
Duolingo's viral TikTok strategy would not have succeeded with remote work
“I don't think so. And I say that as someone who is a homebody and loves being remote, but like, it's honestly like having even, I mean, if you have a suit, maybe, but having the suit and just the random quirkiness and the thing, like the things around our work…”
Zaria Parvez Jan 19, 2024 ▶ 15:08 Zaria Parvez: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers & How to Create Viral Content | E1105 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Duolingo's TikTok strategy operates like a sitcom with ongoing storylines
“I always say our TikTok is like a sitcom. Everything we put out there is an episode. Some are amazing and go super viral. Some are just there to build the storylines, but it's something that can live and function as short form video content, even if it was to …”
Zaria Parvez Jan 19, 2024 ▶ 8:25 Zaria Parvez: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers & How to Create Viral Content | E1105 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Duolingo ignores agency backgrounds when hiring social media talent
“When we're hiring for our teams, for example, like I don't really care about your advertising experience. I don't really care about like what agencies you worked at. I care more about if I give you like a concept, can you find a trending audio? Tell me what to…”
Zaria Parvez Jan 19, 2024 ▶ 6:21 Zaria Parvez: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers & How to Create Viral Content | E1105 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Crossing creative boundaries is necessary to discover where the lines exist
“Candidly, like, I've commented on something that I probably shouldn't have before, and I got checked and balanced for that, and it was one of the biggest learning moments where, like, if I didn't cross the line, I wouldn't have known where the line was”
Zaria Parvez Jan 19, 2024 ▶ 25:39 Zaria Parvez: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers & How to Create Viral Content | E1105 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
95% of Duolingo's TikTok impressions are completely organic
“Candidly, most I would say about 95% of our impressions are completely organic and they're for the cost of like maybe duo's costume and like the sushi I had for dinner while like filming and like staying late a little bit.”
Zaria Parvez Jan 19, 2024 ▶ 31:36 Zaria Parvez: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers & How to Create Viral Content | E1105 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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