How long should a hook be?

Short enough to be taken in before the viewer decides to scroll: on video, about one to three seconds of speech, and on screen text, roughly ten words or fewer. On text platforms it is the part shown before the post is truncated.

What makes a good hook?

Specificity and a reason to keep going. A good hook names a particular person, problem, or result and opens a question that the rest of the post answers. Generic openers such as "you need to see this" work less well than a concrete claim.

Making content

Hook

A hook is the first line, first second, or first frame of a post, written to make someone who is scrolling stop and keep watching or reading.

Also called opening line, scroll stopper.

On short-form video the hook is roughly the first one to three seconds, and it has to work twice: once as words on screen for people watching muted, and once as the spoken line. On a carousel it is the first slide; on a text post it is whatever shows before the platform cuts the post off with a more link.

Most hooks that work do one of a few things: name a specific problem the viewer has, make a claim that needs the rest of the post to resolve, promise a concrete outcome, or show the end result first. What they share is specificity. A hook that could open any post in the niche stops nobody.

The hook only earns the first few seconds. If the post does not deliver what the hook promised, retention drops at the point the viewer realises it, and platforms read that drop as a signal the content was not worth showing.

Common questions

How long should a hook be?: Short enough to be taken in before the viewer decides to scroll: on video, about one to three seconds of speech, and on screen text, roughly ten words or fewer. On text platforms it is the part shown before the post is truncated.
What makes a good hook?: Specificity and a reason to keep going. A good hook names a particular person, problem, or result and opens a question that the rest of the post answers. Generic openers such as "you need to see this" work less well than a concrete claim.

Related terms

Call to action: A call to action, or CTA, is the line in a post that tells the audience the one thing to do next, such as follow, comment a keyword, save the post, or tap the link in bio.
Content pillar: A content pillar is one of the few recurring themes a creator's content returns to, which together define what their audience expects and what a brand is buying access to.
Content repurposing: Content repurposing is turning one piece of content into versions made for other platforms or formats, such as a video into a carousel, a thread, and a newsletter section, rather than posting the identical file everywhere.
Engagement rate: Engagement rate is the share of an audience that interacts with a post, calculated as total engagements divided by a chosen denominator, most often followers or reach, expressed as a percentage.

Distinct is the workspace where brands and creators run the work behind these terms. For brands, for creators, or back to the full glossary.