YouSaid · the spoken record

Zaria Parvez

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56
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2024-01-19
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2024-01-19
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  1. “I feel like my value of where I enjoy and love doing things does not come from work and being on the treadmill of life feels more of doing stuff for my personal benefit and personal gain and like things that enlighten me. And like I'm happy, like I'm okay with where I'm at. And I feel like maybe in five years that'll change. Maybe I'll want to grow more. But like I'm okay just existing and being. And that is my mantra right now. So I don't have any crazy ambitions for the 10 years. Maybe I'll be retired. That's my dream. My dream is to be retired.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “I would like to be working a nine to five and stagnant. And I'm saying that because I feel like there's this pressure for us to constantly grow and to dream to be a CMO and to dream to keep going bigger and bigger. But I want to be at a place where I'm happy, where I have a good work-life balance and my work is not my life. I don't know if that's a hot take. I personally have no ambitions of being a CMO or like going higher. I'm content and happy with where I am.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “I actually stay on LinkedIn. I love LinkedIn, but I use it more for my personal stuff than I would actually for Duolingo. But I also, yeah, hot take Gen Z is showing up more on LinkedIn”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “We haven't seen direct correlation, if I'm being honest. I would say more of like a one million view thing on TikTok, my or actually a more correlation with like app downloads, but it kind of stays within its own little realm. We used to see people on Twitter, they would repost TikToks that we'd have, and then we'd see some more followers on Twitter, but Twitter's kind of gone to shit. So since then.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “I think at times I feel it does. I feel that's what will distinguish you between a trend when TikTok becomes irrelevant of how can you translate it across. And so storylines, I think, stress me out of like, what is actually hitting the chord with people that's a storyline that they can resonate with and understand?”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Candidly, I worry about TikTok being banned content wise, I worry that I'll not be able to come up with more like content that lives beyond a trend, if that makes sense.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “You know, if I'm being so honest with you, I don't really care about brands. Like I admire a brand like that. I love Ghani because I love their clothes. I love Costco because I love shopping there, but it's more of like stuff like that. I don't think, and as a marketing person, I feel like I know I should have a perspective on that. But I think for me, it's like, I just love people who make great work. And I think not one brand has nailed that every time and time again. I think we all kind of bring.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “We're all in the same boat. I love streamers. I think it's funny watching people play games. I just think it's so funny to me, and I don't know why. I don't game. I don't do any of it, but just the concept that somebody could be engaged with me playing a game. Like that to me is just wild, but a lot.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Okay, on Twitter, I love The New Jersey State Department, and I think they have really funny tweets on TikTok. I love Scrub Daddy. I'm a big scrubdy stan, but we also do like a lot of content with them. So I just like, that's why we've done content with them just because I love what they do. And then in general, like just fun content that not necessarily is on TikTok, but is more long form is Liquid Death. I just, I love Liquid Death.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Yep, 100%. My dream is to hire a stand up comedian for my team, like candidly. I think people who are removed from marketing, who are removed from content creation, who just exist and love the content for what it is are probably going to help your brand go further than those with specific marketing training. And I believe the marketing training can be taught. But that natural ideation machine that connects with video content sometimes just comes from someone who doesn't even know what marketing is.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “I think that goes back to the North Star. Like, language learning is hard, so we make it fun, and every piece of content will have some mention of that. And like, I know a lot of people be like, well, I didn't see language learning in this Dual Liba thirst trap. And the way that we kind of approach that is the strategy that I love to call candy to the medicine, where essentially the candy is going to be the Du Alepa thirst trap, but the medicine, you might find it in the comment section. You might find it in the caption of us being like doing mentioning something about our app, mentioning something about language learning and fun and innovative ways. So like, for example, the Dule Lipa Thurstrap. I remember one of our comments being like, the only stuff you'll find on Duelingo Plus or like super Duelingo. And that is like, all right, like we just kind of plugged our premium app and now people are into it. That's the medicine to the candy. And I feel like that's a really important way of approaching content today.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “I think the hardest thing is as creatives, we're very personally attached to what we put out in the world. And it's very hard to take critique. It's very hard to look back at ourselves. And I think something that I'm going through right now is like, like a lot of people are like, Duelingo's always been successful. And like Duelingo's this and that, which is so true and it's so great. But right now we're kind of in a rough patch with our content. Like we're trying to figure out how to like go on YouTube shorts, how to make things viral and being able to remove the personal and take the critical feedback and figure out ways to be innovative is a most tough thing for me. Like it feels like it's always like a goose chase where when you think you got it right, you have to start from score zero again. And I think it's a very humbling feeling. I think it keeps us nimble. And I think it also keeps us empathetic to like being adjustable and adaptable, which I think is the most important skill any human being can have. But yeah, I think it's that personal attachment and being able to just like pivot is probably the hardest thing.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “It's very loosey goosey. The way we go about it is we know that social is very much dependent on trends, so we never really plan more than like two weeks out and even two weeks is like a bit of a stretch. And pretty much every Monday I go through the week and see how many pieces of content we're thinking of doing and just Monday through Friday we'll assign people like, all right, Lily, you're going to be doing two trending videos this week. Figure it out. Mel, you have this one campaign scheduled. Is it okay if it goes live on Wednesday? XYZ. And then say in the middle of the week, all of a sudden Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey are trending. Okay, Mel, sorry, we're not posting that. We're posting about this tweet about this. And I think the mindset is no one is too precious about what content they're creating. Everyone is just down to do whatever and do whatever will go viral. So people are fine with pushing their stuff back or having to jump in and think of creative copy or just kind of work together to make viral moments happen.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Yeah, that definitely. I think, yeah, cultural moments has had way more impact than like regular scheduled programming. And we really try to adjust for that too. Like we have this saying with our social team that we have our calendar-ish of like what we want to post, what we're thinking of, but everyone has a veto card if they're like, this is super relevant and needs to get out today. I'm pulling my veto card. And those are things that we have in our team to make sure we're pushing out content that feels culturally relevant and feels like goes on top of the game.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “I feel like I'm going through that right now, so I appreciate you saying that. Yeah, it happens. And I feel like the biggest thing is to not take it personally. I think sometimes I think my ultra ego is literally a green bird. And taking a step backward to be like, no, you are Zarya. This is your nine to five. And it is okay if everything is not a smashing hit. I think that's been a very helpful way to kind of disconnect from it.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “I think it depends. Like we have before, if it's been like really freaking bad, then yeah, but I think it's more of like a judgment on that, but not usually. We kind of just keep it up.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “Yeah, it does. Candidly. But I think that's natural, and I think tension is required for growth. So I think the way that I approach it is like more of, all right, I know this caused you like tension. Let's talk about it. Like, let me know about it. Like, I remember, for example, when Threads was a thing for like a 0.2 seconds, we posted a photo of Big Bird. I don't even remember what we said as the comment, but it was like duo, Big Bird or whatever. And at the time, we had a kids app and someone from the team was like, yo, like it's a kid's app. You can't post like, I think it was something like us like swooning over Big Bird. But they're like, you can't post that. Like they're from blah, blah, blah. And I get these messages all the time. I remember we've talked about making like a social media like thing where people can anonymously say their issues with what we're doing. But I think that's okay. I think those moments of discussion and tension are important for people to understand social, for understand what does well.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “And I'm always saying that people from intersectional backgrounds, like they go through the most so they know how to handle the most.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “I feel like I can tell because I would say our team is a team of troublemakers. And I think it's because I grew up with that. And I feel like it's more of people who don't have traditional backgrounds and also people who are very upfront. I stand people who are like, I am who I am and I don't give a fuck if you like it or not. And that is the energy I want. And I know it sounds unaccommodating and stubborn. I've been that way, but also to a certain extent, you need that energy to push things forward. And I would also say troublemakers, if you're looking for an easy pool to start of people who are pressing these red buttons, who are testing boundaries is people with intersectional backgrounds. And I'm very adamant about this because I grew up, right, in a Bakkasani household in a very white city in America. My entire life was figuring out how to balance both these cultures, both these groups, figure out how to please both. Because of that, I'd find myself kind of pushing against up the wall sometimes, but I also know how to manage that pressure.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “Believe they're the ones that press the red button when most of us are too scared to press it ourselves. And I say this with my boss Michaela that I was talking about. I remember I used to push her and I was like, you just got to trust me. And I'm just going to do it. And if you're not okay with it, we'll delete it, but I'm going to do it. And I remember being like, I don't know. And I was like, send moments like that where you need people who are willing to keep pushing the boundaries. And I get in trouble and it happens. And I get messages from CEOs and I get into little thorny situations that work. It happens. But also great work comes from it. So I think it's what you choose to do with that.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “I would say you have to hire troublemakers. I say that because I have been suspended before. I have been on the hot seat many times while in university. I remember in my interview at Duolingo when they asked if was there any questions you have. I was like, yeah, if you could do a presentation for 10 minutes on anything that's not about work, no notes, what would it be and why? And like questions that are just like things that are just unexpected. I've been rejected from big brands for jobs and I was applying out of college because my resume, I can send it to you after this, but it's definitely not a traditional resume. It's very different. It's unhinged. And my whole life mantra, I was like, I want to be somewhere where I can just be Zarya in all corners of my life and all that I am. And I'm going to take it and leave it. And like, I've gotten rejected from like, I remember I applied to Google, rejected, Microsoft rejected. Like, it's fine. Like that happens because I wasn't meant to be there. And troublemakers are the ones that are causing seismic cultural shifts.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Is access to make something great. That's what the access I consider as like 20 luck and the other 80% is hard work and diligence. But I think it could be replicated by anyone who's given the same opportunity and access.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “Okay, so I grew up in a Muslim household and I always believed that everything has been given to me based off of like the situations you've been in and the blessings you have. So that's like my personal thing. If you look back at it, like I grew up in a family that was wonderful and supporting, I got to go to an awesome college. I got internships after that. Like all of these were opportunities granted to me because of the access I had. And I'm very adamant about it that like other people could achieve exactly what I did. I just also happened to be in the right place at the right time. And that is all about access and opportunity. And I know that also on the scale of like, I was also at a brand that allowed me to post trending audios. I was also at a brand that was okay with taking more risks than maybe a bigger brand might be. So these are all things that kind of lined up for me. And then where I stepped in as Zari where I'm proud of myself is I took advantage of what those things were there and how can I use this opportunity? How can I use it?”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “While there are moments, of course, of frustration, I think the frustration more is that we're just changing how things are done and what they're used to. I don't think it's a matter of like jealousy or anger or like what's going on. It's more of just like growing pains of now we used to be this kind of not old school brand, but a brand that kind of did more traditional stuff and now we're whole mantra as being social first. So yeah, when like a 25 year old comes in and changes that, it's not going to be easy all the time. There's going to be growing pains. There's definitely like moments and there's tiffs and there's moments where I feel like I have to demand respect. Sometimes people may think that it just I got lucky in some shape or form. I do think I got lucky in such shape or form I think I worked for that luck”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “What people think about your brand. It's the truth that connects it, and that's kind of like the funnel that I've seen that if you have to create content, why not make it entertaining? Why not make it something that people want to consume? If innovation and all of this stuff could be bought, it would have been bought by billionaires ages ago. But the truth is, is like a lack of money and lack of resources is what makes the creativity shine. And I'm a true believer in this. Like anytime we did well, and I remember my boss being like, we might get more budget for this. I was like, no, like I don't want it. And I genuinely believe that lack of money is what inspires creativity. And I think the young and the poor have that in abundance. So that's probably why you see more innovation and stuff coming from younger people because they have a lack of things. And for me, that's what I found success in. I know everyone has their own take on that, but I would prefer less budget.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “I would kindly and candidly say does your happy earth day posts convert to users? We all have, or most brands have social teams that are doing things on social thought, why not do this? Like it feels like for us, it's still a very, very low budget execution. Like we're not asking for thousands of dollars like candidly, I would say about 95% of our impressions are completely organic and they're for the cost of like maybe duosum and like the sushi I had for dinner while like filming and like staying late a little bit. And I think for me it's like you can do things and be scrappy and still be iconic. You don't have to be spending thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars to convert people. Like it's possible to do it by just hitting them where they get it. And that's also, again, circling back to what I said earlier, like that's how you know you've hit a chord with that human truth that it is true. It's not just you.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “Work at Dueling Go and like noting our TikTok as the reason to be applying to work here. And I think it's moments like that where it's like, sure, like we have our whole process for converting users and doing all that fun stuff, but like the true mark of an iconic brand or like actually like making a difference is people are talking about you in their group chats. It's like one of the main things you hear about your brand. And it's what people associate when they hear Duolingo. And I think for me, that was a success marker going on from that when we first started I didn't have any OKRs attached to it. It was more of just a test and learn experiment. Now it's like one million views is considered a viral account. I mean a viral video. We have a how did you hear about a survey so now TikTok is part of that so if we have a viral video we'll actually see an uptick in users based off the timing of it and people saying yeah we heard about you from TikTok so those are ways that we actually measure success but in my head I feel like being part of culture is far more relevant and far more impactful”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “So our account, I think, first started off as just a brand awareness thing. Candidly, I didn't have the resources, the time, or with being remote to actually create video content. I was in my home, so I was like, all right, how do I get Duolingo on TikTok? I'm just going to start commenting. So I started commenting on videos. And those started gaining traction. And I was like, all right, like people want to see something. And then we created videos. Now people had, when they clicked on a comment, they had something to go back to on our feed. And short answer one million views for us is like a viral video that is successful. That is what is like written down as like green check, great job. But I feel like the real measure of success for me was when I noticed that people were referencing Duelingo's TikTok as like a home run machine or Duolingo's TikTok as like things outside of like people who would normally care about Duelingo. Something that was really awesome to hear is like from our people team like people were applying to”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “Yeah, and like honestly, it's funny because the candid truth about it is he does DM me and there's these open conversations and he's open to hearing pushback as well. There's been times where he's told us to take down a video. And I was like, okay, cool. But what if I change the audio, fix up the text a little bit? Can I repost it? And he's like, okay, fine. I think there's that relationship that makes it feel I'm not alone and there's people getting feedback and it's not like me versus legal or me versus a CEO. It's very much everyone's invested in our social doing well and everyone cares for it to do well. We just have to figure out the best way to go about it.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “Out a way to convey that to people who may not look like me, may not do the same things as me, may not consume the same media as me, but still be on board with it. So I think looking back, yeah, it was a mistake. Like getting a message from your CO9 is never a great feeling, but also like figuring out the learnings from it has been really helpful of like how we keep pushing the boundaries in productive ways.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “So I can tell you a funny story, and this was just me not realizing, but there was this trending audio at the time about my little pony. And it was just like a normal. Like it wasn't anything crazy. But we ended up having like someone pose for it and do it. And it ended up looking overtly sexual in a way that it shouldn't have. And it was a very non-sexual trend. So I was like, I don't get it. Like, I don't see what you're talking about. Like, don't you see it? And at the time, I remember CO messaging me and being like, bro, come on. like you can't post that take it down and i think i was like okay like i was like it's still doing really viral and it's doing really well but we took it down because it's like his brand at the end of the day i think like that moment was like very much a moment of recognizing that just because i get it as gen z and i might get it as a trend doesn't mean that it'll always translate across people so figuring out like the lesson there for me was like if i believe in something that's risky and has the potential to go viral how do i figure”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “So candidly speaking, I think I never realized, especially, and I think this is a product of being at a smaller company, being in Pittsburgh, a very slow kind of sleepy town, is realizing when I push post, it's actually going to 7.8 million people. That weight kind of gets lost in it when you're on the internet and you kind of, I always say it's very easy to get lost in the sauce. You're busy commenting. You're busy creating viral content. And it's really easy to like slip up and like comment on the wrong thing or say the wrong thing. But like 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. That's something I know we all experience when you're growing up.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “Duo to be everywhere reminding you to do your lesson, then I'm going to be on every platform as much as I can to my messability.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “I feel like I might have a different response to this because of our brand truth. So for us, I'm very adamant about having like one or two sentences of what you know you're doing so that just becomes like the North Star for every single piece of content you put out there because it makes things just easier. So for us like the what we've established with our TikTok is language learning is hard so we make it fun. Everything is going to be judged against that human truth. Is it showing that we're having fun? Does this seem fun and entertaining? Is the messaging we want to give across with that truth? And then the other truth that we have is duo is freaking everywhere. And that is what we want it to be where duo will stop at nothing for you to do your lesson. So for us, I want to be on multiple platforms because those are true to my brand. However, I feel like once you know your human truths and what you know what your values are and your strategy is, then you can assess where you want to be and where you want to show up. But because duo is everywhere, we want.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “I think there's a lot of lore that you have to like just keep posting, and that's what's going to keep you successful. I don't believe that it matters. I believe that the quality of content is far more important than the quantity. And a lot of the times I've had to step back because I got burnt out from creating content. And what I was trying to push out was just pushing out for the sake of pushing out and it wasn't good. And then when I took two weeks off, nobody cared. Everybody went on about their lives. It was okay. Came back, viral hits. And then people were fine. I mean, like the harsh reality is that no one's sitting there missing Duolingo. Like they're not missing our app as much as I'd love to think they're sitting there missing my TikTok content. Like, they're not. Like it's five seconds of their day just as we consume other branded content and taking that mindset and approach has helped me alleviate burnout, has helped me create great content and also like not take myself so seriously.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “Send some pre content to my 13 year old nephew to be like, What are your thoughts on this? And like, his response is always brutally honest. So that's also a good helpful thing to see. So having people that will actually consume the media outside of your brand to kind of review content has also been super helpful for me.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “I wish I had a go viral button so bad. I would say that every time I feel like I have a good read, the algorithm changes and I'm back to square one. And I feel like myself in particular on our team, I'm notorious for being, if I get too into a project, I'm convinced it's going to fail. And I like, don't step back and I'm like, wait, it's actually funny because you get so into the editing and the nitty gritty and you're hearing it over and over and over in your head where you're like, this is just not funny anymore. So I don't have a read and I'm still learning and playing it by ear as a lot of us are. I think though I do have a general idea of when something is really going to be successful. And I think that's more of like the genuineness is like, did I have fun creating this? Like, was I laughing when I was doing this? Was this something that I find entertaining? And if I didn't work at Duolingo and if I didn't give a crap about brands, would I want to post this in my group chat? And that's kind of my litmus test of like, is this entertaining or good enough? And I also.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “Yeah, exactly. So, and I mean, obviously, we're still a pretty small team, so we'll be stretched across whatever need to be stretched across. But it's really helpful having almost experts in each channel like talk to us and give feedback. And same for us. Like, I'll be an expert in TikTok and get feedback to my role manager who might be making some content.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “At this rate of where we are, I would say about 75% is rip and replace and what the other 25% is us trying to actually think through like what would work better on reels versus TikTok and like our way to alleviate that is we kind of broke out like who's working on which channels by like generational divides so we'll have like a little bit of elder millennials doing Instagram while we're doing TikTok and then we're talking to like our interns to help us with shorts and it's kind of like how those age gaps and how we consume media actually dictate who's posting on what. I might make something that's super tick tockable and super fun, but when I suggest it to post on Reels, I've had an upper millennial be like, that's not going to hit, like fix and adjust this, maybe change how this looks. And we've done that, and then it does really well. So they're like small iterations of the same concept.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “It's so hard, man. Because sometimes I feel like it is, and other times I'm like, it's absolutely not. But right now, we're focusing a lot on TikTok, reels, and shorts. And I would say that TikTok and Reels feel more connected. And shorts just feels like a new ballgame. Like YouTube Shorts feels like something like my 13-year-old nephew would be posting from the back of his middle school bathroom. Like, it's just so confusing. And I'm like, I'm trying to understand Jen Alpha, what goes there, but I would say like the trends are very different, the content's very different there. So we're still trying to crack that nut. And a lot of things that break the internet and trend on TikTok don't do well on shorts.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “I would say I do feel pressure from our marketing team in general. I've been able to succeed on a lot of different parts of going viral and doing all this content stuff and like doing this with you, like even talking here with you today, I started on such a high note that like I would say I'm more dealing with like that internal thing of like, you know what? It's okay if a video doesn't go viral and it's okay if we have to go back to the drawing board.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “I don't think so. And I say that as someone who was a homebody and loves being remote. I mean, if you have a suit, maybe, but having this suit and just the random quirkiness and the thingness, like the things around our workplace is what.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “It's definitely more, I would say, buttoned up now you'd expect it to be. We now have a head of social and we have a social coordinator and another social media manager that's four of us. And it's honestly like a Slack channel of dumping like this is trending. This is my audio. This is trending and this is my thought. This is what I think we should caption. This is what I think we should do. And I think the biggest thing about the ideation process for us is that it's not sitting in a room and brainstorming. I saw this trending audio. I took the suit. I filmed this. What are your thoughts? And it's just going for it and creating the content. And it's possible the content won't see the light of day, but actually having that visual thing and kind of people working in silos so we can hit their niches and the fandoms they're part of. And then come together to see how we hit those different parts of the internet is how we actually brainstorm and create.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “The truth of it is it started with there was only one full time employee for social, and that was me. These were genuinely just funny tropes that I thought existed in our office. I think Duo is a very quirky place in general. People have confused Duo with Duo Lipa for ages, and that's been on our community, like within Twitter. And I always say, for example, for that, like the comment section is your social brief. Like people will say stuff, like lean into that. Like if they're telling you they want to see XYZ, give them XYZ and it can be that simple. And that's where Dulepa came from. It's always been a joke because Steve was also for a very long time the only lone general counsel at Duolingo. And people used to just call him legal Steve and like legal Steve, we'd have to check in with him. It just became a funny natural thing that a menace duo would not jive with a lawyer.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “It doesn't. And that's what we're learning that people don't come to social to learn a language, and very few people actually care about our app when they're on social media. If we're lucky, people will be like complaining about how they got a C minus in Spanish and how much they hate language learning. Maybe they'll insult our app or they'll just confuse us with like Dua Lipa. Like that is what people are talking about when it comes to social language learning. Like they genuinely, very few, some must, but very few people care what Duolingo has to say about the new slang word. Like it's just not something that they're going to social for. They're going for either a break or for entertainment. So we need to grab them and meet them where they are.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “Go to the platform and they're actually learning a language, they recognize that you can be the thing and also subvert the thing. You can be funny on TikTok like you would with your friends, but you could also be serious when you're learning in school or learning and working and work or being on the app. And I think it's trusting that our consumers are much smarter than we think they are. And even if we make them dive in deep, like they can figure it out. They'll scroll back if they want to scroll back. If it's entertaining enough, people will figure it out.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “I would say that we literally just drop them into the deepest part of the ocean and say swim. I feel like as marketers, sometimes we get in this mindset that like we have to dumb it down and make it as simple and as explainable as possible because people are not going to understand it. And I feel like we have to have more trust in our users and our followers that they know to close the loop and can bring things together. And I know this isn't exactly your question, but when we first started our account, we were building content, a big question that we had was like, okay, if we're doing silly stuff that's like duo crushing over Duo Lipa, how are people going to know that we're an effective language learning app? Like they're going to think we're silly and we don't have any efficacy. And I think for me, the response was always like we're able to be silly. We're able to do this because people know we have a good app that then when they go and they go to the after they see our TikTok and their converted user and they”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “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 leave TikTok. So some of the storylines, duo and like legal Steve or General Counsel are always beefing. Duo loves Duo Lipa. We have Lily, this emo girl that hates Duo, but somehow is always roped into duo shenanigans. And it kind of exists and people who get the lore get it. And we're always trying to build lore. We just did a mascot intervention where we invited Scrub Daddy, the teletubbies, and we remade some iconic old things. We did a seance with Scrub Daddy, just fun, innovative things that will get people to be like, oh yeah, I remember when Duo did that.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “The best way to start is to steal like an artist. And I say that because a lot of TikTok is like copying each other. Like that is the truth of it. When we first started, these trends were us just copying what we see and obviously giving credit words to, but that is the nature of the platform. That's how these like voice audios go viral. It's me saying it. In one scenario, somebody else saying it in another scenario. And I think this idea of stealing like an artist is okay and appreciated on TikTok where it's like, this is your spit on it. And I think it's a great way to start, honestly. Like, I feel like if you're looking for trending audio, like click on the audio and just see what people are doing and see where you can bring your person into that. However, I think that'll only get you so far after a certain point once you've reached your virality people kind of get the, okay, they understand TikTok and how it works. They're looking for more storylines and more things that you can bring. So I always say our TikTok is like a sitcom. Everything we put out there.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “This is such a cop out answer, but I think it's a mix of both. And I'm saying that because if you don't have the science and you don't know how the science of the app works, your art is not going to go very far. So when we're hiring for our teams, for example, like I don't really care.”

    2024-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source