Duolingo: The Sassy Social Media Expert is Not Perfect
Executive Summary
In this essay, I broke down the analysis of Duolingo’s social media presence into its history, its strategy, the risks it deals with, “Duo” the bird, and each platform. I found that Duolingo neglects its Facebook page by barely posting and only posting lackluster content. My strategy uses Duolingo’s history and strategy for other platforms to seamlessly transition their content format onto Facebook. The strategy prioritizes having a cohesive story about their presence on all platforms.
Intro
Duolingo is a language-learning app that was created in 2011 (Wikipedia). Since then, it has amassed around 74.1 million monthly active users and 21.4 million daily active users (Cool Jugator). They have a premium subscription model that has accumulated 5.2 million users. Duolingo approaches language learning in a very fun and casual way, with cute graphics and a “game-like” approach using its streaks (a streak is created when you complete a lesson every day consistently). This strategy has been explained by Professor Cohen as necessary to target its US-based audience, an audience that does not have a culture of learning languages and finds it very hard to do so. The app design has not been the only reason for Duolingo’s success. Its unique social media strategy is what puts the company at a competitive advantage.
Duolingo is known as one of the brands that does social media the absolute best. See Table 2 for a comparison of their following with one of their main competitors, Babble. Babble cannot even compare to Duolingo in follower count. Duolingo is known for breaking boundaries and stepping over lines, but somehow always doing it just right. However, the language-learning app didn’t start with the intention of focusing on social media. To be able to analyze the brand’s social presence, how it got to where it is, and where it improving, we have to start with the beginning.
The History
In October 2017, memes started popping up on every platform, showing Duo looking murderous, threatening people if they did not do their language lesson of the day (Figures 5-7) (Writer). These were memes created by people not directly affiliated with Duolingo. It was only in March 2019 that Duolingo embraced its meme virality, by creating a menacing advertisement that caused viral reactions of people joking about the app’s “scariness”(Figures 8-10). After this, Duolingo had some fun with social media, but it was not until 2021 when a new Duolingo employee named Zaria Parvez took over the brand’s TikTok account that their signature social media strategy took off (Contagious).
Their TikTok page was neglected, and Zaria recognized TikTok’s boom in influence. She thought to herself, “If these people are on TikTok they’re not using our app. So, how do we get them to come over?”(Contagious). Her first move on TikTok that was successful wasn’t creating video content, it was commenting on other people’s videos. These comments imitated the Duolingo push notifications, creating the idea that the company was everywhere, and would always be telling you to finish your lesson, menacingly.
Over time, Zaria started posting video content that went viral and in two years, amassed 8.2 million followers on TikTok. This is when Duolingo started using a “social-first” marketing strategy, where they prioritize social media platforms and use that avenue for their main marketing strategy.
The Strategy
Duolingo uses a menacing nature to create a funny meme or joke about themselves. But that is not the only aspect of their strategy. Specifically, they steer clear from “ads”, are unconventional, and create lore.
Zaria herself has said, “People don’t want ads.” If users are scrolling on TikTok, and see someone saying, “You should join Duolingo because we have the most efficient learning system!”, they will immediately scroll past in a matter of seconds. Duolingo connects with audiences by creating casual and fun content, avoiding overly-produced content that scares away consumers from a brand's social media account.
Duolingo is also not afraid to be unconventional. An example of this is how they are unafraid to call out brands by name (Figures 1 and 2). Another example of this is using all lowercase letters, something unheard of for marketing but also exactly the way to relate to a Gen Z audience. Zaria said, “There was a time when people were freaking out about us typing in all lower caps without proper punctuation because we are a language-learning app. Now, that’s not even questioned”(Contagious).
Duo also creates lore. Lore, a concept created by Gen-Z and very important for Gen-Z, is the collective narrative/story of a fantasy universe (Urban Dictionary). One example of this is having a whole category of posts about Duo’s rivalry with the legal and PR teams of the company. Another example is the lore of Duo Lingo wanting to pursue Dua Lipa, a similarly named pop star. Lore creates a “if you know you know” mindset to their social media that makes connecting with their accounts and staying up to date desirable and engaging.
The Risk
The reason why more companies don’t do what Duolingo is doing is because there is risk. Duolingo is constantly one step away from a PR crisis or legal repercussions. But, Duolingo prefers to be closer to this risk than be on the other end of the spectrum and have a boring social media presence that creates no value for the brand.
I would argue that they supersede these risks because they take notes from their audience, get in on the conversations, are not afraid to have fun, and stay on top of what is current and new in the social media world. These strategies make the risk worth it.
“Duo” the Bird
The use of “Duo” the bird is also unique to the brand. Although brands like Wendy’s and Denny’s also use snarky and quirky humor to market themselves, they do not leverage their mascot to create an in-house influencer. “Duo” is a literal influencer, with its personality and collaborations with other influencers. “Duo”’s personality is “sassy, helpful, motivating, organized, supportive, and slightly awkward” (Writer). This personality is relatable and funny. The strategy for “Duo” the bird specifically has humanized the brand, and given the brand a friendly and approachable face to use for content.
Duolingo’s Social Media Platforms
Duo Lingo’s Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok accounts are all very similar. They all post satirical content employing all of the strategies explained above. The analytics comparing each platform can be found in Table 1. Their TikTok is their star account, with the most followers. Their Twitter has the least amount of followers. Duo Lingo posts consistently on all three of these platforms. Overall, the content overlaps on different platforms, but each feed is differentiated enough to be tailored to each type of platform. Duolingo also has good one-on-one engagement with the consumers on these platforms for customer service purposes(Figures 3 and 4)
They might have a Pinterest account, but it is not verified so I can not analyze it without being sure it is under Duolingo’s control.
Their Facebook account, however, is not as active, has no satire, and uses a more PR-friendly approach. The content on there is just like any other brand’s content that does not engage with the audience and does not add much value to the brand. They post high-production campaigns, graphics, events, and company reports. I believe this “boring” content is because they perceive Facebook as a platform that will not absorb the satirical content like it does on other platforms. I believe this is a missed opportunity because Facebook is the most used social media platform across the world (Data Reportal). I also believe their avoidance of Facebook can be caused by a fear that the audience is too old. Although Duolingo has 61.45% of users being from ages 18-34 (UseSignHouse), Facebook similarly has 43.2% of its users in the US being 18-34 (Statista). This demographic represents too large of a percentage of both Duolingo and Facebook’s audiences to be ignored.
The Strategy for Facebook
My proposed strategy for Facebook is pretty simple, Duolingo needs to keep doing what they are good at. I considered suggesting creating less quirky or controversial content for the sake of Facebook users, but the brand image needs to be cohesive. The voice they have on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok has to be the same as the voice they have on Facebook.
More specifically, I would suggest Duolingo join Facebook groups, a feature unique to the platform, and make those “menacing” comments in the Facebook groups. This would replicate the personalized attention that Duolingo accomplished by commenting on people’s TikToks at the start of their social media transformation. After they catch people’s attention in Facebook groups, they can start rolling out their satirical content onto their page.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Duolingo is seemingly conquering every social media platform with flying colors, but they have neglected the largest one: Facebook. My strategy would mesh well with their presence on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, while also creating a new avenue for Duolingo to spread its fun and casual method approach to language learning.
