Zaria Parvez is Duolingo's Senior Global Social Media Manager. She outlines how Duolingo views its competitive set around user attention rather than product category.
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…”
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 …”
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…”
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”
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.”
Disclosure
Duolingo's TikTok failed with an agency until an internal team took over
“When we first launched our TikTok, we hired an agency to work with us. Before I was kind of in the weeds, like I was just kind of like observing or whatever, and the content didn't hit. And it wasn't until an internal team like me took over that it started to …”