It’s not hyperbolic to say that
forever changed the social media industry with her work at Duolingo. Yesterday she announced that after five years at the company she’s leaving. I sat down with her to talk about that decision.You can listen to the audio of the interview above or watch our conversation on YouTube here.
When Zaria started at Duolingo the brand had 35K TikTok followers. She’s leaving the account with over 16M. That’s a 45,614% increase for my percentagecalculator.net users. Her impact went beyond the numbers though. She showed marketing teams everywhere what can happen when leadership empowers a talented young employee to just…run with it.
Over the years, we’ve heard a lot about Duolingo’s viral posts and the strategies behind them, but like any success story there are also the thorny challenges. The ones that aren’t as fun to write headlines about. This was Zaria’s first job out of college—she had to quickly adapt to a global spotlight on her work and navigate the brand’s early social growth as a one-person team. We dig into all of that and more in our conversation. We cover:
What she’s looking for in her next role
The five pillars of virality
Communicating instinct into strategy
Why she took mental health leave
What brands should actually do if they want to be “more like Duolingo”
The oversaturation of brands on social and rise of “slow burn” content
Her favorite account to follow right now
I’ve known Zaria for years, am lucky to call her a friend, and always learn something when I talk to her. I hope you enjoy this one-off podcast from the Link in Bio universe!
If you enjoy free interviews like this one, you can upgrade to a paid Link in Bio subscription. You’ll get access to the very active Discord—which is kind of like group therapy for social media professionals.
It might even be an educational expense at your company! Here’s a template for you to use when asking your manager.
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