What a hook has to do
A hook is the first line of a tweet or the first tweet of a thread. It has one job: make the right reader want the next line. Good hooks do it with one or more of these:
- A specific promise: the reader knows what they'll get.
- Tension: a gap between what people expect and what happened.
- Relevance: the reader sees themselves in it.
- Credibility: a detail that shows you know what you're talking about.
Write for the first glance
People scroll fast, and most of them read on a phone. Assume your reader sees the first five to ten words before deciding. Put the interesting part there. If the first line only works once someone has read the second, swap them.
12 hook patterns
| Pattern | Example |
|---|---|
| The result | “We cut our onboarding from 14 steps to 4.” |
| The contrarian take | “Unpopular opinion: most startups should raise prices before they run ads.” |
| The mistake | “I wasted six months building features nobody asked for.” |
| The how-to | “How to write a cold email that gets a reply, in 5 steps:” |
| The list | “7 tools I use every day as a solo designer:” |
| Myth vs reality | “Myth: you need to post every day. Reality: you need to post every week.” |
| The question | “What's the most useful thing you learned from a bad boss?” |
| The story opener | “Last year a customer emailed me at 2 a.m. It changed how we do support.” |
| The quick tip | “Quick tip: write the subject line last.” |
| The comparison | “Junior developers ask how. Senior developers ask why.” |
| The surprising number | “Our best-performing landing page has 40 words on it.” |
| Stop doing this | “Stop ending meetings with ‘any questions?’ Do this instead:” |
Several of these are presets in Extudio's tweet generator, including “Unpopular opinion:”, “Myth vs Reality:”, “Quick tip:” and “Stop doing this:”, so you can start a draft from the hook.
Hooks in context
- Y
Your name@you
My newsletter's open rate went up after I made it shorter. I cut every issue to one idea, one example, one link. Readers told me they finally finish it. Turns out “comprehensive” was a polite word for “too long.”
- Y
Your name@you
Myth: recruiters read every line of your resume. Reality: they skim the top third and decide. Put your strongest result in the first three lines. Everything else is supporting evidence.
- Y
Your name@you
I shipped 6 side projects in a year. One makes money. Here's what was different about the one that worked:
Rewriting weak hooks
Most weak hooks have the same problems: they start with background, stay vague, or announce instead of saying. Here's how each fix looks.
| Weak | Problem | Rewrite |
|---|---|---|
| “A thread on productivity.” | Announces a topic, promises nothing | “I stopped using a to-do list for a month. I got more done.” |
| “I've been freelancing for a while now and…” | Background first | “My best client came from a reply I almost didn't post.” |
| “Some tips for better sleep.” | Vague | “Three changes that fixed my sleep, none of them involve a supplement.” |
| “Interesting thing happened today.” | Withholds the point | “A customer cancelled and then sent us their best idea yet.” |
The pattern behind every rewrite: say the most specific, surprising thing first, and let the rest of the post explain it.
Hooks without clickbait
A hook makes a promise. The post has to keep it. If the hook overpromises, people feel tricked, and reactions like “show less often” or a mute can cost you more than the click was worth.
- Don't claim a secret if it's common advice. Say it's simple instead.
- Don't tease and withhold. Give the answer in the post or the next tweet.
- Don't use made-up numbers. If the number is illustrative, make that clear.
- Avoid stock phrases like “This will blow your mind” or “Nobody is talking about this.” Readers have seen them a thousand times.
Match the hook to the goal
- For replies: questions, contrarian takes and comparisons give people something to respond to.
- For saves and reposts: how-tos, lists and quick tips promise something useful to keep.
- For follows: results, mistakes and story openers show what you know and how you think.
- For clicks to a link: a result or surprising number, with the link in a reply so the post stands alone.
How to test your hooks
- Keep a list of every hook you post, with the post's impressions and replies after a day.
- Tag each with its pattern from the table above.
- After a month, see which patterns your audience responds to.
- When a post does well, rewrite the same idea with a different hook a few weeks later.
Hooks matter most in threads, where the first tweet carries the rest. See how to write a thread for the full structure, and the myth-busting thread and listicle thread templates for ready-made shapes.