Marketing Happy Hour - TikTok 101: How to Build an Engaged Audience | Zaria Parvez of Duolingo

Episode Date: January 20, 2022

"Do not excessively sell your product on social media." In this episode of Marketing Happy Hour, Zaria Parvez of Duolingo is sharing how she turned a language learning app into a highly engaging and viral brand across Tik Tok, Instagram and Twitter. As a social media coordinator and the voice of the Duolingo Owl Zaria has worked with her team to grow their social media accounts while building a community of millions of raving fans. During this interview, learn how to:  Apply the "flicker, flash and flare" method to your social media accounts Maximize your brand impact on Tik Tok Engage your audience in the comments sections on social Find success, in general, on Tik Tok Create work-life balance while working in the social media and marketing industries __ Grab a drink and listen in to our discussion with Zaria Parvez.  ----- Other episodes you'll enjoy if you enjoyed Zaria's episode: Social Strategy 101: What You Need to Succeed | Lauren Freund of Shutterfly Gen Z Work Habits: Balancing a Tech 9-5 and Full Time Content Creation | Angelica Song of Google Content Marketing 101: Creating an Effective Social Media Presence | Elyse Estrella of Wine Enthusiast ____ Say hi! DM us on Instagram and share your favorite moments from this episode - we can't wait to hear from you!  Please also consider rating the show and leaving a review, as that helps us tremendously as we move forward in this Marketing Happy Hour journey and create more content for all of you. NEW: Check out our website! NEW: Join our email list! Follow Zaria on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/photos_zap/ Check out Zaria's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@zariaparvez Connect with Zaria on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zaria-parvez-645983140/ Follow MHH on Instagram: https://instagram.com/marketinghappyhr Follow MHH on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-happy-hour/ Subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter, Marketing Happy Hour Weekly: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/marketing-happy-hour-weekly-6950530577867427840/ Join our Marketing Happy Hour Insiders LinkedIn Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9238088/

Hey there, welcome to the Marketing Happy Hour podcast, where each week we're learning career-defining advice, powerful social media strategies, unique creative tips, groundbreaking influencer marketing tactics, and more from marketing experts that represent some of the world's leading brands. Let's dive in. Grab a drink and join your hosts, Cassie and Erica, for this week's episode. Hey, Marketing Happy Hour listeners, this is Erica. We have such an amazing episode for you today, but I first wanted to pop in here and let you know about two social media update headlines

that I've seen recently that I thought were super interesting and wanted to get your thoughts actually. So we'll be posting about this on our Instagram page. And if you can head over there and let us know your thoughts, we would love to hear from you. First, Metta, also known as the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and whatever else, is developing an ethical framework for the use of virtual influencers. So fully digital characters that have evolved into genuine social media influencers in their own right need their own set of rules and regulations on the platform and how they're able to grow and make money on the app, which I just think is really interesting to see unfold in terms of what to

come with the metaverse and all those good things. And then along those same lines, Twitter is actually testing an NFT profile picture display option, and they've moved it to the next stage of testing which is just I don't understand it I don't understand NFTs I think we should have somebody on here to talk about them because there is an intersection of marketing and the NFT space and I think I just think it's so cool that people are so creative and they're coming up with this whole new way of exchanging goods and art and things like that. So very exciting things on the horizon for both Meta and Twitter. And let us know what your thoughts on our Instagram page at Marketing Happy Hour. That's at Marketing Happy HR. Hey everyone, it's Cassie. I am so excited to introduce this week's guest,

Zaria Parvez, social media coordinator for Duolingo, an American language learning website and mobile app, and one of my personal favorite brands to follow across social media. Erica chats with Zaria to hear how Duolingo grew to over 2 million followers on TikTok in just four months and how with the Duolingo Owl's savage personality on the platform, the brand is creating memorable moments for their audience. Zaria also talks about the unique method they use to differentiate content across Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter in order to speak directly to their unique demographics across those platforms.

You'll also hear about how this young millennial landed an awesome job straight out of college and her advice for creating work-life balance while working in social media, which if you're in the industry, you know is pretty difficult. I loved getting to listen to this interview and I know you will too. So don't forget to get your drink ready, get comfortable because it's time to dive into this week's episode with Zaria of Duolingo. Hey Zaria, how are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm doing well. I'm so excited to be speaking with you today. Duolingo was really the first app that I think gamified the experience of learning a language and kept you coming back through

notifications. I remember there were jokes all over the internet about the notifications being needy and aggressive and how funny that was. And I think that's part of the reason, aside from your incredible creativity, obviously, that the brand has seen success in displaying that personality and attitude in a new way through TikTok and beyond. But before we jump in, I just have an important question for you that we ask all of our guests. So what is in your glass tonight? This is marketing happy hour after all. So quite honestly, it is a Monday night

or Tuesday night. Sorry. I know right after a long holiday. It is Tuesday night and I am drinking my water. You know, I got to stay hydrated. Yeah, absolutely. We love a hydrated queen. I have well, our listeners will not be surprised by this, but I am drinking an Onda, which is Shay Mitchell's like sparkling tequila brand. I am always drinking one of these when it's been a long day. So that's what I've got. I love that. Yes. I just wanted to hear a little bit about your background and experience starting your career at Duolingo. And like, did you always want to work here? Like, what was your initial start? Totally. Great question. So this is actually

my first job out of college. So while I was in college, I had a lot of different internships at advertising agencies. And my main focus was like brand strategy and media planning. And then post college, I was looking for a job. And then social media kind of, in my opinion, married those two things together. And beyond that, I wanted to work at Duolingo because I wanted to work for like an inherently diverse place, which is pretty awesome because like Duolingo itself was founded by two immigrants. Just the nature of who we are, like our DNA is we are diverse because we are teaching different languages so like you'll walk into our office and you're like someone speaking in French then someone arguing about the linguistics of this language and what this means and what like this accent means and stuff

like that where you like you just don't realize how nuanced and deep it is and like the different ideas and the environment that can create. So that's just why I wanted to work at Duolingo. And then the fact that they wanted to make education accessible and free, I thought that was a pretty awesome thing to use my skills towards. So that's kind of how I ended up here at Duolingo. Yeah, that's amazing. I remember before I learned about Duolingo, really the only way or the only known way to learn a new language was to take a course that you had to pay for or software that you had to pay for that was really outdated and didn't teach you the right stuff. And I just think that Duolingo making everything so accessible and free is amazing. So that's so awesome. And of course, you're known for being the Duolingo owl

on TikTok. Can you just share a little bit about the experience that you've had building that account with your unhinged and savage videos and comments? They're so amazing. I was actually watching a few of them right before we got on. And I was thinking, Oh my gosh, this is hilarious. This girl is hilarious. But then I was also like, why am I a little bit nervous for this conversation? I feel like she's a celebrity right now. Oh my God, what's going on? So can you just tell us a little bit about the whole experience behind building the account on TikTok? So interesting enough, our TikTok actually first launched in February of 2021. And we actually started with a partnership with ByteDance, which is like TikTok's parent company, for their Learn on TikTok initiative as a language learning app. Like it made sense for us to be part of this. So they helped create videos for us using different like content creators who were specialized in language learning. So we had like these pre-produced videos that we just put up and they were there.

And then that partnership ended, I believe, around like May of 2021. And we just kind of took a pause on our TikTok. And then come September, we were back in the office. And quite honestly, this big owl mascot was just staring at the marketing team of where it sits. And I just thought the whole concept is funny, because like, mind you, this was my first nine to five job, right? And I'm like, walking into the office. And I see this and I'm like, why is no one fazed by this? So I just thought that whole idea was funny. So I knew this trend that was going on at that time back in September. And

I was like, to my boss was like, Hey, can you just like film this and maybe we can post it and see how it does. And that just took off. And then we just kind of kept going and going and going and kind of expanding this like, universe almost of like the Duolingo characters and Duolingo's personality traits, what duo loves, what duo doesn't love. And that was through like our comments and how we reply back to people, the videos we post, and even the comments we have like on other videos, like people can kind of figure out what Duo's personality is. And now they know like, oh, Duo's gonna love this or keep this away from Duo. Yes. Oh my gosh, I love that. Wait, so I love that you spoke to the strategy behind comments on other videos. I'd just love to hear a little bit more about that because it's such a great way to engage outside of even your audience, you know, and create some memorable moments with your brand that are going to be at the forefront of people's mind when they're looking for a language app to learn something on, even if they're not your current follower or your current customer.

Like, I just think that's such an amazing strategy. I'd just love to hear a little bit more about how you go about doing that. Like, how do you choose what videos to comment on and what to say? I mean, it's got to be like such a creative process. I just love to peek behind the scenes. Yeah, absolutely. So what's interesting about our account and Duolingo in general that you kind of alluded to earlier is that this meme of like duo constantly being everywhere and being passive aggressive and the notifications like blowing up your phone has existed like far before I even joined the company. Right.

So our whole idea was like, how do we bring this like pushy, aggressive owl to TikTok in a way that's like natural and like engages with this audience that's so huge, because there's just absolutely so many daily active users on this app, like how we're missing out, like, how do we engage with them? And it honestly started off as just like an experiment, like, let's just comment on this viral video and see what happens and at first it was like an owl video and then it went into like okay let's comment on this video about language learning and then it ended up being a video about like Dua Lipa because her name sounds like Dua Lipa right and then we just kept going like it doesn't TikTok doesn't necessarily require you to like only comment on things that like your brand is related to but it's

more like commenting in a way that's authentic to what the video is showing and in a way that strategy just helped bring like this idea of duo being cushy everywhere and I think also what's really awesome is that we rarely in our comments I mean occasionally here and there but rarely we're like learn a language do your lesson kind of thing and I think by not doing that, people see like our comments that just relates to what the video is talking about. And then they'll respond to me like, Oh my god, I just forgot to do my lesson. Be right back. I'm gonna go do my lesson. So it's just like this whole counterintuitive cycle of like, figuring out how to engage authentically, and then eventually getting them to do what you want them to do without telling them what to do, if that makes sense.

Yeah, absolutely. No, I love that. I think that's awesome. I just I had a quick question. How long did it take for you guys to reach like 1 million followers on TikTok? But did you have like a party that day when you reached it? Or, or what? What was behind the scenes there? Yeah, I think it took us a month, which is kind of crazy. Like, yeah, blew up. And it's funny that you asked this, because I remember sitting at lunch with my boss. And we were like, I want to say we were at like 50k followers. And this was like in September. And I was like, you know what, by the end of like the quarter, my goal is to hit 200,000 followers. And we're like, good goal. Perfect. And then literally, like within a month, we're like, nope perfect and then literally like within a month we're like nope we're at a million followers got a dream bigger that's insane with that much growth I mean what what is that like just experiencing that but like the viral content and all of that growth does it come with like haters does it come with like pushback from your team does it come with like pressure to make sure that you're performing every time? What does that look like? Yeah, absolutely. That's a

great question. I think there's a lot of joy. And there's also a lot of pressure. But I think more so than like pressure coming from like, my team members or like people in our company, it's like pressure on myself because I was like it's just TikTok like I've done this before like why can't I just keep like creating viral videos and like the reality is is that like I'm a human I'm not like a content machine you know right and I think I've been really fortunate to be on a team um like even like within our first like like six wave of success and we're getting vir, like my boss and my boss's boss, and we have like our little communications team, like we all sat down together. And they were like, we're so happy for you. We see the success. But we also want you to know that like inevitably in social, you're going to make a mistake, something might something bad might happen. Someone like on the executive team might not like what you're posting. And regardless like we're here for you and I think having that environment really took the pressure off of like always having to perform like perfectly and beautifully because like I'm 23 this is still my first job I still have a lot to learn

so that was like nice to have and also I think what was really cool to have is there was no like tied metrics to it like I was never expected to like make sure you get this many downloads of our app in this quarter and make sure this happens. It was more like let's just get in and share a voice and see what happens. So that like experimental playground made it really easy for me to have fun and create content without having this like external pressure of having to perform. Yeah, that's amazing. It's so great that your team is supportive like that and understands like the nuances of social and how, you know, it really just varies on how your audience is feeling that day, whether a video sees success or, you know, whatever it is.

Yeah, my next question then is just, you know, do you see the same success on IG and Twitter and all the other platforms that you do on TikTok? Or is it, you know, a little bit slower? And what is your strategy behind other platforms? Yeah, great question. It's definitely slower, I would say on the other platforms. Twitter, we've definitely had moments where you'll see the kind of like that unhinged duo um energy we'll bring that to twitter there'll be a couple viral like tweets here and there but nothing like how we've seen on tiktok and in a way i think we've kind of decided to compartmentalize that just because the audience are so different across platforms and we don't want to like scare one audience from one

platform by what they might see on TikTok that doesn't make sense out of context is like what the heck is going on so the way that we think about it is that like Facebook is like talking to your grandparents Instagram's like talking to like a professional colleague and TikTok's talking to your best friend so that's kind of how we like strategize and how our content goes out, just because that's also how our age groups kind of vary across the three platforms. And that's proved to be successful for us so far. So yeah. Awesome. Are you guys on LinkedIn at all? We are, but that is actually handled by our people team. Gotcha. Okay, that makes sense. Um, I just have one more question around content, creating content for TikTok. Do you content batch or are you like spontaneously coming up with ideas and recording every single day in the office? an hour just brainstorming ideas for the week based off like what's trending um and i do that and then i come up with ideas and i go and like talk to the

guy who wears a duo suit and we record usually for an hour um but usually like if something comes up during later in the week they're like oh my god this is amazing or this is a great reply we'll quickly like record that and that'll take us like 10 to 15 minutes. We've kind of followed like this idea of this like Flickr flash player model on TikTok, which is like just the different types of content you can create. So we have most commonly created like Flickr content, which is just like high frequency trending content, just because that's just worked the best and people relate to it. When we've tried doing like our series that I mentioned that we had before we learn on TikTok, we just didn't get the same engagement. And I'm not sure why at this point, I, I speculate, it's just how the algorithm works, what gets pushed.

And the idea of like, there's not like, yes, you have a grid on TikTok, but it's not the same on Instagram. So people aren't coming back to get like the story, unless it's like a viral, like crazy story that happened. Right? Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned Flickr, Flash and term. It was like, I think it was like TikTok says that's what their content is like. But essentially, there's Flickr, Flash and Flare. Flickr is like reactive content. So that's like, using like trending content, trending audio, things that you just keep seeing it for your page, and then putting your own spin on it. Flash is more like proactive. So kind of like you said, it's like that medium effort production quality, consistent format, kind of like episodic. So kind of similar to what we were doing in the beginning. And then

Flare is those large scale campaigns you see. So something that's one to three times per year, like a branded hashtag challenge and branded effects, which we have not kind of ventured into yet. Awesome. I have a question. When a brand is big on TikTok, when they're seeing a lot of success, is it similar to a creator seeing a lot of success on TikTok? Like, does TikTok provide you with, you know, incentives or do they partner with you? Do they reach out to partner with you? Like, what does that look like? I mean, for just an example, we see, you know, they send, I think they sent like a cake for New Year's or something to some of their creators. Like, do they do anything for brands like that? Or is it really just because you're kind of

benefiting off of TikTok? They're kind of benefiting off of TikTok they're kind of benefiting off of you it's just that mutual relationship yeah I actually would say that it's we haven't really heard much from the TikTok team themselves um which is interesting because it's like I'm sure there's a lot of things that brands run into that would like it would just be cool to be like ah what are we doing how do we fix this such as like copyrighted sounds or like right what music we can and can't use or like why something gets put down for a violation when there's like it seems innocent you know but like maybe the algorithm just processes it as a community violation so at this time no but that could just possibly be because we ourselves also haven't reached out so i'm not exactly sure about how that dynamic works sure yeah no that

makes sense. I just was curious. I was wondering, do they treat it the same as like a creator seeing success on TikTok? I don't know. I just, I don't even know how that would work, but that's just, that's interesting. No, it's a good question. Yeah. So you mentioned a little bit, and that was on my question sheet about audio.

So are there sounds that you can't use as a brand or that you have to pay for or get rights to? Like, what's the process there? Yeah, so the only restriction we've run into, and I'm not sure if that's just because our legal team is like chill, but we just can't use like copyrighted music. So like if a song is trending, we can't use that because TikTok physically will not let us record anything with that sound. But other than that, everything else is on the table. Like more internally brand guidelines wise, we stray away from like sounds that have like explicit cussing or like promote violence. But that's more like we could technically use it.

It's just we're choosing not to use it. Yeah, no, that makes total sense. Just moving along to kind of your role and and how you've, you know, developed in it. What have you seen any challenges in your role? Have you experienced any pushback to your ideas, or anything like that? Yeah, um, I think like the biggest thing that I'm dealing with and this might be a little personal but like more of just like an internal struggle of like understanding the whole dynamics of like what it means to be a content creator because I think on the surface of it like to maybe somebody outside of a social media role like it seems easy you know it's like oh yeah

filming TikToks all day you're just scrolling on TikTok all day and it's like yes but on top of the other like content on like the other platforms i'm handling and like touching into all these different meetings but like how to promote other products and stuff within our like within our global platforms and other agencies beyond that we're just in the tiktok world it's like coming up with like an idea for a trend is very difficult as like as your own human being but then also for like a brand that's like educational sometimes it's really hard to like link the gaps together so I think for me it's like internally I'm like oh my god like am I overthinking this like I feel like honestly sometimes I'm like I feel stupid like this is just a TikTok video and I'm like treating it so seriously and it's it's just tough because it's like this internal

I guess like this internal need to constantly be on and constantly create content and like just do the best you can possibly do um and then what's also tough is that you work really hard on the content piece you think it's amazing it's performing, and then you might be told to take it down because it was registered the wrong way, or someone didn't really like it, or you just get feedback from someone who doesn't work in social media and doesn't get it, you know, and they're like, Well, we don't really like this video. So I don't know if you've experienced this, but I just feel like in the social world, we are open and prone to like a lot of feedback, just because some people think just because they have their own social channels, they understand what it means to run social media for

a brand. So I don't know. Sorry, I'm ranting right now. No, that's absolutely true. I remember I was working for a hair care brand and we were trying to get started on TikTok. And I just remember we had all of these amazing ideas and we like created the videos but our our leadership wanted to like see them and view them and they didn't prioritize it so we were like weeks behind on trends that we should have been on top of and so we got like we got kind of made fun of because we were so behind on things and I don't work for that company anymore but I see their TikToks now and I can see that they're they're like moving beyond that. They're at least, you know, kind of up with the trends nowadays. So I think they learned from that. But it's so true. Like people there's endless

amounts of people that are going to weigh in on the social strategy and the social world when they might not necessarily know exactly what goes into it or how much work it truly is to come up with ideas and that actually leads me to another question like how do you get out of a slump when you can't think of any ideas have you run into that before yeah absolutely sometimes I honestly I feel like I'm in that right now um but I feel like the biggest thing that I've seen that has helped me just to like, stop scrolling and stop opening the app. And just like going out and doing things I love to read. So reading going on a walk. Also, I'm a huge believer in work life balance and like taking off

I think some of the best content we had was like, I was able to travel to South Africa in November. And like we took a two week break on like our duo account. Literally, like our caption was on vacay, don't text. And I came back from that trip just so freaking inspired to like, create content and do things and felt refreshed. So honestly, I just removed myself from it. And like, I think what's lucky about TikTok is that I guess you can easily be forgettable too, which means like if you're not producing content, some people will realize, but other people will be like, whatever, like, you know, like I'll look at other creators and then you kind of come back in with a bang and then it's all good again. And I think that was

a fear we had and was like, oh, I'm leaving. What's going to happen if we have a break? And honestly, nothing happens. The world spins on, and I feel healthier and happier. Yeah, that's so important. Resting is just so important. I've learned I'm continuing to learn that as I further along in my career. I'm like, I used to be so scared to like, you know, take a day off. I wasn't I didn't have like an actual vacation plan or anything. I would be just so scared to like take a day off for mental health or just like just honestly just to recharge in general. And even a sick day, I would I would be sick and I would be working because I would be like, oh, I can't like my team is relying on me and I have to do this and I have to be posting and I have to, you know, continue and grind. And like that's just not a healthy mindset. Like, just like you said, when you rest, and you allow yourself that time to recharge, like you come back

with such a better attitude about what you're doing, and what you're creating, and who you're reaching, and you get excited about it again, which is so important. So totally, totally relate to that. Have you guys seen like a tangible lift in downloads as a result of your content on TikTok? Yeah, so it's interesting is that we have a how did you hear about us survey. And we started putting TikTok as like an option for that survey before it used to just be social media. But now TikTok has kind of its own box to check. And we've seen like a large uptick in users. So it's definitely had an impact, which is super exciting, especially in the social world to be like, look, look, it matters. Yeah. Oh my gosh. That's amazing. Usually it's hard to

like associate growth with like a product or a service and like sales with your social content if it's there's not a clear cta of like click click here and buy it now like that's so cool though that you're able to see that through that survey that's such a good idea too um so if someone's just starting on tiktok if they're a brand and they're just starting out on TikTok from everything that you've learned from the platform, what is your best advice that you would give a brand just starting out? Okay. My best advice I would give a brand is do not explicitly sell your product. And I think that's so important because the second you stop saying, buy this, use this code, do this, you will see people engaging with your product and wanting to get it eventually. And I think that's just so important.

It's just a different platform. It's not meant for this type of advertising. Maybe Instagram, maybe Facebook, maybe those places are meant for those paid ads. But here, it's just like, if you can latch to trends and you can make it semi relatable to what your brand is, people will be interested in your product on their own. They'll start talking about it on their own. You do not have to explicitly sell. Yeah, no, that's such good advice. What has been your favorite part of this brand persona, attitude, whatever you want to call it that you created? I imagine it makes going to work really fun, exciting. You look forward to it. So what's been your favorite part of it?

Yeah, I think what's really cool is that I was able to authentically come to work as myself. And anyone who knows me, I guess beyond Duo knows, I've always been a little bit sassy, a little bit sarcastic. And I like to have fun. Like even my resume when I was applying was just like super kind of crazy. Like I had an internship in the summer of 2020 that got canceled. So like underneath it, my description was like, Miss Rona didn't let me intern, but this is what I did. You know, just very like casual and fun.

And I think that has been awesome to be able to translate my authentic self to this brand persona. And like, I almost feel like me and duo are kind of the same person. So that's what makes it easier for me to like respond back to comments or like, like, I don't feel like I'm putting on a hat or pretending to be something. I feel like I am duo. Oh, my gosh. That's amazing. Like, yeah, it's definitely fun. And it's just cool to, like, show up as yourself every day and not have to, like, hide yourself or be someone else or even be a different persona. Like, I almost feel like if I was a little bit nicer, I might struggle with, like, the sarcastic comments, you know?

That's great. That's so awesome. What is, what's your ideal growth path in your career? Then I know you're, are you social media manager? Is that your current title? I'm actually social media coordinator. So to grow soon to be manager, I'm just going to manifest that for you. Are you still figuring out what your career path kind of looks like or do you have some goals in place yeah I think like my biggest goal is to one day be like a global head of social media somewhere awesome um and just create cool content I've what's funny like with this job is that I

used to think like the product mattered not that Duolingo doesn't matter but like of course you don't really think of like an educational app to be like the sexiest like marketing thing ever to like make cool things with um and so now I've like kind of before I used to like oh I want to work specifically for like Patagonia or Nike and now I've kind of been like you know what like I just want to create really cool content that's exciting for whatever that brand may be and just be given the ability to like run with it and have creative freedom. No, I love that. I think that's such a good goal to the global head of social media somewhere. That's amazing. I can't wait to like, look back on this in many years when you are the global head of something and be like,

I talked to her when she was a social media coordinator. So just kind of along those lines, what do you kind of see the social media landscape looking like in even a few years time? I know there's like talk of the metaverse and web three and all of that stuff. Where does social media fit in like what would you say so I really think right now at least what we're seeing is like this shift um from being authentic to almost being absurd if that makes sense yeah and I think it's that whole idea of like irony is really big with Gen Z and it's like ironic take on this and just different stuff along those lines. So I really I don't know, I honestly think it's the shift from like authentic authenticity to absurdism and where that goes from there. I'm not exactly sure.

But I gotta say I do like it. I like that we're not asked to be buttoned up anymore. We're not asked to like post throwback Thursday posts and stuff like that. Yeah, absolutely. And I feel like I've seen articles and things like we've reclaimed Instagram and we've reverted back to what it was meant for like posting just, you know, like photo dumps of just like real life and not like super shiny edited photos and things like that. And I think that move into, I guess it still is authenticity on apps like Instagram and things like that. And I think that move into, I guess, it still is authenticity on apps like Instagram and things like that. We're still at that point. But on TikTok and some of the emerging platforms, it's more of that absurdity that you're talking about that I think just like, we're able to laugh at ourselves and laugh with brands and, you know, kind of have this experience on the internet with these companies that we

really just know of and don't really have like an everyday conversation with, we're kind of allowed to step into that space when we're talking with them on TikTok and engaging with their content and responding to their comments and things like that. I think it's just more of a personal experience with, you know, customers and brands that is just really shaping the way that we use social and kind of even the way that we shop. Like, I mean, I don't really use the Instagram shopping or anything like that, but I know people do. And it's just crazy that things are changing so fast. And especially with like, you know, buzzwords now with the metaverse and all that stuff, like, I'm sure it's just crazy that things are changing so fast. And especially with like, you know, buzzwords now

with the metaverse and all that stuff, like, I'm sure it's going to change even more looking forward. So it'll be very interesting to see what happens with all of that. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. What other brands social strategies do you admire? Are there brands that stand out to you on social? Yeah. So I've kind of been kind of head diving head first in the TikTok world. So I have to give a shout out to Ryanair. Yeah. So funny. The girl who runs that account is also very awesome down to earth. Very similar story, I would say to mine. So I think that makes it really awesome to like have someone to like talk to about things. You're like, are you running into this problem? Are you dealing with this?

Which is cool, which is not the question you asked sorry but no i love that it's great like she just uses trending audio she makes it relevant it was an account that i looked up to when we were first starting out and i remember telling my boss i was like one day i just want to be like ryanair um and i'm glad to say that we've like I I think we've made it there which is pretty cool yeah scrub daddy's also super fun I think they're just out there like a random sponge you never think for them to have that much fun but it just goes to show it doesn't matter what your product is you can make it happen on tiktok yeah absolutely oh my gosh I haven't seen scrub daddy's content I need to look at that I had to set a timer on my TikTok app for like 45 minutes a day because I was spending like way too long and staying up way too late on TikTok just

like admiring everyone's content like I don't create content on there I just admire everybody else like even when I'm on there and like I want to comment on something it's so funny my internal struggle is hilarious because it's like I want to comment on something. It's so funny. My internal struggle is hilarious. Cause it's like, I want to comment on something, but immediately if I do, I like delete it within two minutes because I'm like, I am so lame. Like I am not up with the times. Like I am too old for this, but I'm not, I'm not. It's just so funny that I just think that way. So anyway, I don't even know where I was going with that. But I have two last questions here. And then the final question that we always ask our guests, but two fun ones that I thought of. Have you learned a language from duo? Yes. So I've been practicing my Portuguese.

I went to Portugal in July was like my first post pandemic. I don't even know. I guess we're still in the pandemic. You know that period of your life of our lives when we thought the pandemic was over? Yeah, I remember it. Well, yeah, I went to Portugal and I was like, well, better like brush up on this. And then after being there, I was like, Oh my god, I love it here. I want to learn this. So that's what I've been doing. That's amazing. You seem to travel a lot. Is that a passion of yours? Yes. So I actually recently got married and me and my husband just decided that like these first years of marriage, we just want to go. So dueling goes awesome with our PTO. So we almost get like 25 days off on top of like two weeks of winter break. So literally every month,

I just spend all my PTO just going somewhere and just seeing new cultures and it just excites me That's so awesome. Are you guys in office full-time? Are you remote a little bit? So we are Technically allowed to be remote right now the office opened in september Um, anyone who wants to come in can come in and then until march 1st, we are still remote But after march 1st, we'll have a hybrid schedule. So three days in the office, Monday and Friday at home. That's nice, though, because even if you wanted to take a long weekend somewhere, you could do Monday or Friday through Monday somewhere. That's awesome. That's really cool.

And then last fun question. Have you spoken with Dua Lipa's people or are you not at liberty to say? We have. I mean, I don't know if someone else is at liberty, but I have not spoken to them. I would love to speak to them. If you know them, let me know their number. I don't. I wish I did. I think that would be such a good collaboration to do. It's the biggest dream. Yeah. She should think about that. But whatever. Okay, so lastly, we love to ask this question on marketing happy hour. Is there anything that you know now that

you wish that you knew when you started your career? I know this is your first job out of college. But is there something that you didn't know back then that you know now yeah I think the biggest thing is that I was so stressed when I was in college that I wouldn't get a job that I wouldn't like I wouldn't ever make it like I've ruined all my chances everything just like in general I feel like that's general like senior like scaries that we get um and I think like the biggest thing I try to tell like people who are seniors whether it takes you like two weeks, two months, even two years, everybody gets their first job. So just like chill out, enjoy and you will get your job. I guess that might be more maybe not career advice, but college advice.

No, that's great, too. A lot of our listeners are starting out in their career journey, like looking for their first job or graduating college and trying to figure out their next step. So that's really good advice. That's awesome. Good. Yeah. Where can everybody find you other than, you know, the Duolingo TikTok account? Are you on LinkedIn? Are you on? I think we connected on LinkedIn, actually. Yes, I'm on LinkedIn. I'm on I have my own TikTok channel, too, which has like a lot of like BTS stuff. And like I try to give social media marketing tips for like, people who want to break out into the social world. And a lot of like just random crap, too. That's amazing. What is that handle? We'll put it in just my first and last name Zaria Parvez. Okay, amazing. We'll put

it in the notes for everyone to find you. Well, thank you so much for joining me. This has been amazing. I have been so excited to like record with you because like I said, I felt like you were a little celebrity. And I just thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, thank you. It's been a blast. What a fun interview. I hope you enjoyed it. I know I'm encouraged to step away and refresh my Spanish and French education and Duolingo and brainstorm fun ways to promote my clients on TikTok. If you liked this episode, don't forget to rate and leave a review. It helps us so much. And we'd love for you to join our community on Instagram at Marketing Happy Hour. That's at Marketing Happy HR. We have some exciting stuff coming up that you don't want to miss out on. Cheers.