Social media hooks that stop the right people scrolling

Key takeaways

Social media hooks are the first line or first two seconds of a post, and they decide who keeps reading. A good hook for a business does not chase everyone. It names the buyer or their problem so the right person stops and everyone else moves on.

• 5 hook patterns cover most business posts.
• Name the buyer or the problem in the first 8 words.
• The hook must be true of the post that follows.
• Write three hooks for each post and keep the plainest.

What is a social media hook?

A social media hook is the opening line of a caption, the first frame of a video or the headline on an image, written to make a specific reader stop. On most platforms only the first line shows before 'more', so the hook is often the only part that is read.

• How to create social media content that attracts the right customers

Which hook patterns work for businesses?

Five patterns work reliably: the buyer's question, the named audience, the specific result, the common mistake, and the price or number. Each tells the reader within a line whether the post concerns them. None depends on shock or mystery.

• Question: 'Can you extend without planning permission?'
• Audience: 'Letting agents with 50 or more properties:'
• Result: 'How a café cut food waste by a third.'
• Mistake: 'The most expensive error in a kitchen quote.'
• Number: 'What £5,000 buys in a bathroom refit.'

• Use your customers' own words in social media content

How do you write a hook that selects the right reader?

Start from the buyer's situation, in their words, and put the most specific detail first. Compare 'Thinking about your garden?' with 'North-facing garden that never dries out?' The second loses most readers, which is exactly what makes the remaining ones worth having.

• Lead with the situation, not your company name.
• Use a detail only the right buyer would recognise.
• Keep it under about 12 words.
• Avoid 'we are delighted' and 'exciting news'.

How are video hooks different?

In video, the hook is what is seen and said in the first two seconds. Show the problem or the result straight away, and put the hook on screen as text, because many people watch without sound. Do not open with a logo, a greeting or your name.

• Short-form video for small businesses without a studio
• Talking-head video: should the owner be on camera?

Which hooks should you avoid?

Avoid hooks that promise something the post does not deliver, invent urgency or exaggerate a risk. They raise views and lower trust, and misleading claims breach UK advertising rules. 'You will not believe this' attracts the curious, who are rarely the people about to buy.

• Clickbait that the post does not pay off.
• False deadlines and invented scarcity.
• Fear that overstates the real risk.
• Vague teasers with no subject.

• ASA rules for social media advertising in the UK

How do you know a hook is working?

Judge a hook by what the right people do next: reading on, saving, messaging. A lower view count with more saves and relevant messages is a better hook than a high view count with none. For video, the retention graph shows how many viewers stay past the first seconds.

• Saves, shares or likes: which social signals matter?
• How to test social media content with a small audience

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see with UK small business accounts: the useful sentence is the third one, after a greeting and an announcement. Moving that sentence to the top, unchanged, is often all a post needs.

• See client work
• Social Media Marketing for UK businesses

Hook checklist

Check each hook before publishing.

• Names the buyer or their problem.
• Specific detail comes first.
• Under about 12 words.
• True of the post that follows.
• On screen as text for video.
• No greeting, logo or announcement.

Next step

Take your next post and write three different first lines using three of the five patterns. Publish the plainest one.