You will be able to write an opening line, or the first seconds of a video, that makes your target viewer stop scrolling.
Farah runs an online modest workwear shop out of a small studio in Geylang (an invented example). A month ago she put up a short video of a new blouse: 3 seconds of her logo first, then a slow pan over the fabric, then her voice saying "Hi everyone, so today I want to show you..." Most viewers were gone before she got to the blouse. The lighting was good and so was the blouse, but nothing in the first moments gave anyone a reason to keep watching.
Social posts and videos rarely come with a headline, so the opening has to do that work. A hook is the opening line or first seconds of a social post or video, written to make the right viewer stop and keep going.
The person who sees your hook knows nothing yet. They don't know who you are or why you posted, and they can't tell whether the post concerns them. Their thumb is moving, and they decide almost instantly whether to pause. The headline principles from Lesson 2.1 carry over unchanged: specific beats clever, and the hook must lead into something that pays it off. A hook differs from a headline in two ways. It is up against everything else in the feed, and the viewer never went looking for you.
Where the hook sits depends on the format. For a written post, it is the first line or two visible before "see more". For a video, it is the first words you speak and the first words on screen, and normally the two match. Plenty of people scroll with the sound off, so for them the on-screen text is the hook. Filming, editing and posting times are taught in the separate Social media and short-form video course. The work here is on the words only.
Most hooks that work name one of three things: a situation the viewer is in, a mistake they could be making, or a result they want. Look for them in your voice-of-customer file. Farah writes for women who need to look office-ready in the morning, and her file held several descriptions of the morning rush. Any of them would have opened the video better than her logo did.
A situation hook stops the people who are in that exact situation. Farah's is "If you have to look office-ready by 8am and you're still ironing at 7:45".
A mistake hook suggests there is a fix the viewer hasn't tried. It works when the mistake is common and the fix is real, and it backfires if it reads like a scolding. Farah's is "The reason your blouse gaps at the buttons isn't your size".
A result hook offers something the viewer can picture. As with outcome headlines in Lesson 2.1, the video must actually deliver the result it promises. Farah's is "One blouse, three ways to wear it from the office to dinner".
Priya runs a tuition centre and took all three of her hooks from her voice-of-customer file. "When your child knows the work but goes blank in the test" names a situation. "Most parents check the answer and skip the working" names a mistake. "How to tell in two minutes whether she understood the topic" names a result.
Curiosity pulls harder than anything else in a feed. You can open with a line like "Nobody tells you this about P5 maths", provided the post goes on to tell people what you teased.
A bait hook promises something the post does not deliver, or delivers so weakly that the viewer feels tricked. Putting "You won't believe what happened" above an ordinary class photo is one example. It may pick up a few extra views the first time, but your audience learns that your hooks lie, and next time they scroll straight past you. Platforms also tend to notice when people stop watching early, so a bait hook can cost you reach as well as trust.
Every hook follows the same rule: deliver what it promises within the first few lines or seconds after it. The line straight after the hook should begin on that promise. Backstory, such as how the business started, does not belong there.
A hook is only a line or two, so it costs little to write, and you shouldn't stop at your first one. Aim for ten on a single topic. The obvious ones come first and the interesting ones turn up later.
Farah's topic was a blouse that does not gap at the buttons. Her first three hooks simply described the product: "New in: the Aisha blouse", "Our best-selling blouse is back" and "Meet your new office favourite". She then opened her voice-of-customer file, and the remaining seven sounded quite different. Among them were "Safety pins between the buttons?", "You're not the wrong size, the blouse is the wrong cut." and "I tested this blouse by raising my arms in a lift full of people." She read down the list and asked two questions of each line: would the woman she writes for stop for it, and would the video deliver on it? All three hooks she kept came from the second batch of seven.
Before you post, cover everything after the hook and read it on its own. Check that someone would know it is meant for them and would want the next line. If you wouldn't stop for it yourself, nobody else will. For video, use the same hook for your first spoken words and your on-screen text.
Now write ten hooks on one topic your customers care about. Take the topic from your voice-of-customer file, not from whatever you would like to sell this week. Open each hook a different way and mix situation, mistake and result hooks so you don't end up with ten versions of the same opening. Keep going past the obvious first few. Then choose the strongest and check that your post or video delivers its promise in the first few lines or seconds.
Pick one topic your customer cares about, write ten hooks for it, and mark the three you would actually post.
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