Why Your Brand Will NEVER Be Like Duolingo On Social Media
Why Your Brand Will NEVER Be Like Duolingo On Social Media
I ask people ALL THE TIME what their favorite brand on social media is. I am always hoping to hear a brand I don’t know about or see a new strategy, but more often than not I hear brands that everyone already knows and sees or that they read in an article that was “the best” brand on social media, Duolingo being one I hear more often than not. I have nothing against Duolingo, I actually use Duolingo daily (currently learning Spanish) , and love their approach to social media. The other side of this is when I speak to brands and work on their strategies we often hear the brands say the same thing - we want to be as big as Duolingo. But the fact is, your brand will NEVER be like Duolingo on social media. Why not? let’s dive in.
For starters, if you aren’t familiar with Duolingo on social media here you go:
Instagram (2.2 Million Followers + Posting 10x per week)
TikTok (10 Million Followers + Posting 10x per week)
Now, why will your brand never be like Duolingo?
Duolingo has an amazing product - if you have never used the app download it to see. They have built an entire WORLD in their app with characters and gamified the process of learning. It’s pretty complex and beyond any other app I have used before. They have truly built a brand.
With their brand they have a mascot - that fully integrates into the brand core and seen throughout the app. More often than not if I EVER see a brand mascot it’s not fully integrated into the brand story. So many brands have tried to bring mascots out to help “speak” for the brand and failed.
Your brand doesn’t have a world where customers are already “living in” - this is so key for a brand to have. What are you offering on social media that makes people actually care? Consumers want to feel like a part of something and too many brands try to build their “experiences” and “worlds” within social media when it should be built into the brand PRIOR to coming to social media - social media is a brand EXTENSION and not the brand itself.
They have their TOV down. When we create social media strategies for clients we are typically trying to take their current brand voice and showing what that can look like on social media. We find that the most revisions we go through in the first 1-2 months of working together are related to tone. Why is that? Because the brand doesn’t know what their tone/unique voice is and it’s like trial and error writing captions and scripts. A brand (prior to entering social media) should work with a branding agency to really nail down that unique tone. It’s so rare to see brands on social media that have that nailed down.
You don’t want to put in the work. Yes social media can cost a lot and especially take time to see growth on TikTok - you may have 3 months of videos not seeing more than 500 views before you have a “viral” moment. This is when a lot of brand s “give up” or want to re-strategize. You have to be fully committed to the work AND to social listening. Duolingo not only creates great content, they post 10x a week, and have social media managers working on social listening. Yes this is a global brand with a lot of money and you don’t have to start out that strong but you can’t go into this trying to half-ass it. You will NEVER get the results you want. It’s much better to be realistic about what you can achieve with your budget and working on the right strategy with that budget than to not.
