Hi, I'm Zaria,
otherwise known as Duo on TikTok.
Those written comments on your one video that accidentally went viral,
that's me.
Or that video of Duo giving birth to sponges,
well, that was my chaotic brain.
Back in April, I was standing on a stage pretty similar to this one,
as the youngest person in the room,
accepting an award for Social Marketer of the Year,
because I made an owl twerk on a conference room table.
Now, many of us have seen the numbers: 4.5 million followers in just six months.
And that's cool and all, but numbers were always boring to me anyways.
I don't think they tell the real story.
And the story I'm about to tell you today
is the real story of Duolingo's TikTok success
and how we became one of the leading brands on the platform.
The story of how a zero-dollar budget, a crusty owl suit, and a phone
made Duolingo TikTok-famous.
I had every single odd stacked against me.
In fact, at one point, I was even told
that TikTok just wasn't a company priority.
That wasn't gonna fly.
Now, if there's one thing you take away from this talk today,
I hope it's this:
There is a method to the madness.
Nothing is ever random, chance, overnight success.
It's calculated risk.
As someone who likes to be in control of every situation,
I thought I'd let you know what I'll be covering today.
First, we'll jump in to intersectionality and how it's The Golden Ticket.
Then, we'll talk about calculated risk.
What it is, and how we've defined it at Duolingo.
And lastly, the road to virality.
The ups and downs, the ebbs and flows,
and everything I've learned along the way.
Cool? Cool. Let's jump in.
For those of you who don't know,
intersectionality is defined
by the different systems of discrimination,
whether that's based on your race, your age, your ethnicity, your religion...
how they all intersect together to create unique dynamics, effects,
and perspectives in the world.
So, for me, in my life, intersectionality is being a woman,
it's being a person of color, and it's being a Muslim in America.
Intersectionality catapulted our vision to take risks.
Risks that were bold enough to make an impact,
but for the most part, still on the right side of the line.
I'm here today to convince you
that when you have a foundation of intersectionality,
whether that be in your school, your work, or wherever you are,
success is inevitable.
Simply put, if you wanna speak and connect with a certain audience,
have somebody from that audience creating the work for you.
And it doesn't hurt to pay them well.
Now, before I get ahead of myself,
I'd love to share a story of a beautiful angel
born in 1998 to two Pakistani immigrants
in one of the whitest cities of America.
What a lovely family photo, right?
Wrong.
As you can see, in a family full of doctors and engineers,
I decided to be an owl on TikTok.
Now, the funny thing about being a first-gen immigrant kid
is we really are good at building our sense of resilience.
You have to manage your parents' expectations of what they want for you,
but also your own expectations of what you wanna do
and what's gonna make you happy.
So when you have strict immigrant parents,
you get really good at managing some resilience.
Jokes aside, the best superpower any social media manager can have
is shapeshifting.
And if you really think about it,
anyone with a first-generation intersectional background,
regardless of ethnicity, really nails down this skill.
For example, one day,
I can be the perfect Pakistani daughter to my mom and her friends
at a dinner party,
and then the next day, I can be in the high school lunchroom
pretending my mom didn't make me Pakistani food for lunch.
You see what I mean? Managing different identities at all times.
So, when you're trying to manage your identity, your parents' identity,
what you think your identity should be,
all while going through puberty,
you become really good at understanding how people think, act, behave,
but most importantly, perceive the world around you.
And I'd argue that the hard skills of social media can be taught.
You can teach someone to hold a camera,
you can teach someone to comment, to chase the analytics,
but the gut intuition that comes from an intersectional background,
of growing up with this your entire life, it's undeniable.
All right. Let's transition into something a little bit more fun.
One of the million dollar questions I get asked by literally everyone is,
"How are you not fired yet?"
And the short answer is,
No, I'm not fired. I'm clearly on this stage talking to you.
And no, I've never been threatened to be fired.
But it is a legitimate question knowing the kind of content we can put out there.
But we all know to break through the noise,
you need to involve risk.
And that's the cornerstone of good marketing, good social,
and really, anything good with impact.
But then, that begs the question: I know I have to take risks,
but how do I walk the line of, well, not getting canceled?
And as someone who has been on both ends of that spectrum,
I'm here today to tell you about a concept that we call calculated risk.
At Duolingo, we define calculated risk as a consciously bold decision
that marries intention and impact.
Now, that sounds like a very jargony phrase,
and the answer is, "It kind of is."
I'm just trying to define what goes on in my head
before I hit post on a TikTok video.
So, in these next few slides,
I'm gonna explain to you the thought-by-thought discernment process
of what goes on in my chaotic brain.
So, here's my step-to-step guide to calculated risk.
First, you must ground your brand in a human truth.
At Duolingo, our human truth is:
language learning is hard, so we make it fun.
So, when we're posting content, we often ask ourselves,
"Are we having fun? Is this actually funny?
Is this something we would wanna engage with if we were a consumer?"
And if the answer is yes, we post it. And if the answer is no, it's gone.
The trusty cost-benefit analysis.
There is always something to gain, and there is always something to lose.
Now, what's funny is that something that you guys love and enjoy externally
can be absolutely despised internally.
So, as a social team,
that's a moment where we ask for forgiveness instead of permission.
And lastly, you should be ready to engage with your community.
If you're gonna post something bold out there, be ready to talk to them.
Have your ear on the ground and see what their reaction is.
That comment banter you see on TikTok videos,
is us being ready to engage with you,
and see what you're feeling, what you're excited about,
what maybe you don't like.
And in that time, we really start to build brand love and trust
with our consumers and our learners.
Lastly, I wanna talk to you about the road to virality.
It's never a fluke, but it's often based in human truth.
Now, another thing about social is that a lot of people think
it's just random, arbitrary, it kind of just happens.
And while I'd love to be able to throw spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks,
that's not really how it flies out here at Duolingo.
The reality is, is that there's actually a lot of thought and process
that goes beyond our strategy.
See, Duolingo's always been fun.
Again, our human truth:
language learning is hard, so we make it fun.
That has existed far before I even existed.
My job, as a social media manager,
was to bring that same energy you see in our app to TikTok.
Learning and mastering TikTok is actually pretty similar to learning a language.
The more you immerse yourself and interact with the content,
the more it makes sense.
So, these are lessons I've learned along that road to virality.
And things I've learned in my 20s, as I'm starting out my career
very much in the public eye in front of all of you.
So, let's jump in.
Number one: Duo's TikTok comments are the new push notification.
We all love Duo for his sassy, passive-aggressive push notifications.
But last September,
TikTok let us know that they now had one billion monthly active users.
That is a lot of people.
And as the businesswoman I am,
the first thought that went through my head,
is that if one billion people are on their app,
they're not on our app.
And that wasn't gonna fly.
And thus, our TikTok push notification strategy was born.
We wanted to bring that same passive-aggressive energy to TikTok
and meet you guys where you were at.
So, say you have a viral video, you're scrolling along,
and all of a sudden you see Duo commenting something.
We only comment things that are relevant to the video.
We're not gonna be annoying and tell you to do your lesson,
because we know you're on TikTok to watch the content.
So, when you see our push notification, then you actually get a reminder on your own.
And we saw the impact of this.
A lot of people would respond to us being like,
"Oh, my God, I totally forgot to do my lesson. I'll be right back."
And in fact, when we saw a viral comment, we would actually see an uptick in users.
It was uncanny, the impact of being authentic and human,
I guess even an owl form can have.
Now, this is a lesson that's really near and dear to my heart.
Be kind to each other, but hard on the work.
Now, what I'm learning and what I've continued to learn,
as being a social media manager,
is the power of kindness.
And I'm not saying that we can't hold each other accountable.
I think accountability is important.
That's where growth comes from and that's how we become better people.
But I urge you to think about when you're in the process
of holding people accountable,
when you're in the process of calling someone out on their mistakes,
the impact kindness can have.
'Cause when you're kind to each other, but hard on the work,
then real change actually occurs.
And that's something I've seen at Duolingo,
and that's one of the secrets of why I'm not fired yet, quite honestly.
I've received kindness when I messed up.
I still received, "Hey, you gotta do better."
That didn't mean that I was done and gone for.
So, I really urge you to think about what it means
to be kind to each other, but hard on the work.
Now, we've seen the numbers and the headlines.
Over 4.5 million followers with over a 180 million views.
That is crazy.
I had a zero-dollar budget, a crusty owl suit, and an iPhone.
Duolingo empowered the skill set I had
growing up with an intersectional background.
I was given opportunity to take risk,
and not just arbitrary risk, but calculated risk.
The same calculated risks I've taken my entire life
as a first-gen immigrant kid.
So, I urge you to empower the kids with the intersectional backgrounds,
to think about what it means to take risk in your life,
and risk that can actually lead to positive impact
and a little bit of fun in the world.
After all, your road to success can be different and unique,
no matter who you are and where you come from.
You got this. Thank you.