ICYMI: Unpacking Duolingo's LinkedIn Playbook
An interview with the head of Duo's Talent Brand Marketing team
Just days after Duolingo “killed off” its mascot, I sat down with Jocelyn Lai, head of the Talent Brand marketing team, to dig into the company’s LinkedIn playbook. We talked about everything from balancing BBL jokes with corporate updates to the nuts and bolts of execution — how far in advance they plan content, what the approval process looks like, and how big the team actually is.
Duolingo ramped up its LinkedIn strategy in March 2024, and the results speak for themselves: 20 million impressions in the first year, exceeding their stretch goal of 16 million. This year, they're aiming for 32 million impressions. So, what’s driving that growth? Is it just the magic of Duo’s internet presence, or is there something more at play?
ICYMI: You’re leading the Talent Brand Marketing team at Duolingo — what exactly does that mean? And where does LinkedIn fit into the mix?
Jocelyn Lai: Our main goal and purpose here is to make Duolingo famous as an employer to top tech talent all around the world, because we hire from all around the world. We became famous on TikTok for a consumer brand, we truly believe we can become famous on LinkedIn for a talent brand. Interestingly, not that many people know that they can work at Duolingo. So that's the bridge that we're trying to solve here, and that actually will help us as a business, because the faster we hire, the more money we save.
What’s the ultimate goal behind Duolingo’s LinkedIn posts?
JL: We want people to be able to experience what it's like working at Duolingo through our content. Because a lot of people are like, ‘Hey, I hear Duolingo is this really cool place, but it's mysterious. Do people work there, or is it just this green owl, and does the owl actually walk around the office?’ The answer is yes, Duo actually does walk around the office, and that's what makes us unique. And if you're into weird stuff like that, Duolingo might be the place for you.
I recently saw a post that said, "If you work in social media, at some point, you'll probably be asked, ‘Can we be more like Duolingo?’" But that’s usually about the TikTok team. You run LinkedIn — do you ever feel like there are unrealistic expectations? Do people assume success comes easily just because it’s Duolingo?
JL: Every single post that we have on LinkedIn, we make sure that there's an element of fun. It's usually 80% informative but 20% fun. And when it comes to Tiktok, it's interesting, it's almost like 100% fun, and we actually tested that out on LinkedIn. We thought, ‘Oh, if that's what people love, let's test it out on LinkedIn.’ It doesn't work on LinkedIn, because LinkedIn is still a little bit more professional of a space. And we also tested out content that's 100% professional, and people just don't engage with that. So we had to really find the right balance.
How did you find that balance? Is this through A/B testing or just months of posting?
JL: We post every single day, and every day is an experiment. After every post, we gather those learnings. We have this tracker, it's literally every single post and what the learnings are, and we apply that to every single upcoming post. And that's how we approach building at Duolingo, whether it's the product, whether it's social, whether it's a feature that we're releasing. What doesn't work, we quickly kill and we make sure there's no ego attached to this. It's all about the learnings.
Can you break down the day-to-day of Duolingo’s LinkedIn presence?