Duolingo's Social Media Transformation
Learning a language in this day and age has never been more accessible.
Gone are the days of the Rosetta Stone CD’s collecting dust, or sitting in your car and repeating back butchered sentences cluttered with clunky, mispronounced words.
Since its launch in 2012 to its massive climb over the last decade-plus, Duolingo has taken the online education / language-learning market by storm - with a ton of help from recent adaptations through social media.
Credit can go to Zaria Parvez, a 23-year old graduate who joined Duolingo in 2020. In an interview with contagious.com, she recalled walking out of an HR meeting and seeing a big, human-sized mascot suit of the company mascot, a green-owl figure named Duo and thinking, “‘This is ridiculous! There’s something here.’
During the pandemic, the Pittsburgh-based company’s social media team led by Zaria shifted its approach to social media, personifying the character Duo to relate to young social media users. The brand gradually took on a sassy, meme-esque tone that related to users on TikTok and Instagram. It embraced trends, and became as hip as a language-learning app can be.
It started with funny comments from the Duo brand account, to hopping in on funny TikTok video trends, to eventually shooting their posts in the 9:16 aspect ratio, which is designed for cell-phone screen usage - no awkward crops or black space. All of these moves helped show the brand was fun, hip, in-tune with pop culture, and accommodating to the user.
Since Zaria took the reins of the social team for Duolingo, the company has reaped the benefits of being relatable and funny on socials, while having a welcoming app-interface that enhances a gamification experience that rewards a user and has them wanting to learn more.
According to Statista, in 2020 Q3, Duolingo only had 37 million active monthly users - which has now grown to a massive 116.7 million active users in 2024 Q4. Thanks to their 16.8 TikTok followers, it’s only growth from here.
According to Zaria, “A lot of people think that Duolingo’s TikTok was an overnight success. But it’s a consequence of us taking small risks and pushing it just a little bit at a time until the point we are at today.”
It’s a good lesson for any brand searching for growth on socials. Take risks and push forward. You just may benefit.
