How To Create Viral Hooks That *Actually* Get Views

[00:00] I'm about to share with you exactly how

[00:01] you can make better hooks for your reels

[00:04] in order to get more views and

[00:06] potentially go viral. By far the most

[00:09] important part of any short form video,

[00:11] whether it's a real, a YouTube short, or

[00:13] a Tik Tok, is the hook. Those first few

[00:17] seconds are absolutely key. It doesn't

[00:19] matter if the rest of your video has a

[00:21] great story, or a super educational tip,

[00:23] or the cure for cancer. If those first

[00:26] few seconds aren't powerful enough to

[00:28] grab someone's attention, the rest of

[00:30] your video is a waste of time. And

[00:33] that's why I believe that the majority

[00:35] of your time, energy, and effort should

[00:38] be spent on those first few moments of

[00:40] your video. The first few frames, the

[00:43] first one to two sentences, and the

[00:45] first 3 seconds. And so that's why in

[00:47] today's episode, I'm going to share with

[00:48] you seven tips to creating better hooks

[00:51] for social media and seven different

[00:54] kinds of hooks that you can use with

[00:56] examples of each. But before we even get

[00:58] into the tips or the ideas or the

[01:00] examples, I have a super juicy hack that

[01:03] you're going to be able to use that you

[01:04] can keep in mind for the rest of today's

[01:06] episode. And it's what I like to call

[01:07] the hook swap strategy. Here's what the

[01:10] strategy is. Basically, take the content

[01:12] that you've already posted, the talking

[01:14] head reels, the videos, the stories.

[01:17] Take the content that has already been

[01:19] shared that maybe didn't perform very

[01:22] well, or maybe you just thought it could

[01:24] have performed better. Maybe you thought

[01:25] it should have gone viral or maybe there

[01:27] was a really great story or a really

[01:29] great tip in the video, but it just

[01:31] didn't get the recognition that it

[01:32] deserved. take that content and either

[01:35] replace the existing hook with one of

[01:37] the stronger hooks that you're going to

[01:38] learn in today's episode, or if that

[01:40] original video didn't have a hook to

[01:42] begin with, create a new hook and add it

[01:44] onto the front of the video. It doesn't

[01:46] matter that you've already posted the

[01:47] video because remember a few minutes

[01:49] ago, you've already decided that not

[01:51] enough people saw it or didn't get

[01:52] enough views or didn't get the

[01:53] appreciation that it deserved. And even

[01:56] if some people did see it, the

[01:58] likelihood that they're going to

[01:59] remember seeing it, especially remember

[02:01] seeing it when it had a different hook

[02:03] is going to be super super slim. There's

[02:05] going to be like 1% maybe probably even

[02:08] less than 1% of people who remember that

[02:10] they saw this post before. And that

[02:12] small group of people who does remember,

[02:14] they only remember because it was that

[02:16] good. And so they probably wouldn't mind

[02:18] seeing it again. So, yes, what I'm

[02:20] telling you is to go back through all of

[02:22] the short form videos that you've posted

[02:23] over the last few months and pick out

[02:25] the ones that didn't get the recognition

[02:27] they deserve. They didn't get enough

[02:28] views, or maybe you just thought it was

[02:30] a super juicy tip and it should have got

[02:32] more engagement. Take that video, use

[02:35] the hook strategies that you're going to

[02:36] learn in today's episode, and apply it

[02:39] to that video. And you're welcome. Now,

[02:41] you'll get more views and you won't have

[02:43] to do as much work to create new content

[02:45] that's actually going to get views. But

[02:47] with that being said, let me get into my

[02:49] top seven tips for improving your hooks

[02:52] on Instagram. And let me tell you that

[02:53] the tips I'm going to share with you

[02:55] today, as well as the examples and ideas

[02:57] that I'm going to share with you towards

[02:58] the end of the episode, are not just

[03:00] from my brain. They're not just randomly

[03:02] picked out of the universe. These are

[03:04] strategies that have been proven to work

[03:06] not just over the last few months or few

[03:09] years on social media, but these are

[03:11] strategies that have been proven to work

[03:13] for hundreds of years. And I know what

[03:15] you're probably thinking, Brock, there

[03:16] weren't Tik Toks 100 years ago. Brock,

[03:19] there were no Instagram reels back in

[03:21] the 1800s. I hear you. But there were

[03:24] books, there were newspapers, and there

[03:26] was news. And that's why you'll often

[03:28] hear me say that hooks aren't a new

[03:31] strategy. They're not something that was

[03:33] invented for social media. Sure, social

[03:35] media has really accelerated the pace at

[03:37] which hooks have become popular and

[03:40] studied and the pace at which we can

[03:42] discern what a good hook is versus what

[03:44] a bad hook is. But hooks are the covers

[03:47] of books. It's the headlines on

[03:49] newspapers. It's the first sentence in

[03:51] the chapter, right? It's the thing

[03:53] that's going to keep you consuming the

[03:55] content for longer. And so the idea of

[03:58] needing an effective hook isn't

[04:00] necessarily new, but I can guarantee you

[04:02] in today's episode, you will learn

[04:03] something new about hooks to improve

[04:06] your content. Tip number one for

[04:07] improving your hooks is to empathize

[04:10] with your audience. The better that you

[04:13] can understand who your target audience

[04:15] is, the better you're going to create

[04:17] content for them. The more you can use

[04:19] words that they understand and that

[04:21] really tug on their heartstrings, the

[04:23] more you can talk about topics and

[04:25] choose things to say that are really

[04:27] going to grab their attention and hook

[04:29] them in. And I know we're talking about

[04:31] hooks today, so I'm not going to go too

[04:32] far off subject, but the foundation for

[04:35] growing a following on YouTube, on Tik

[04:38] Tok, on Instagram, on Twitter, on

[04:40] threads, on any social media platform is

[04:42] to know your niche, to know your market,

[04:44] to know exactly who it is that you're

[04:46] trying to reach. If you're trying to

[04:48] reach everyone on the planet, it's going

[04:50] to be very tough to come up with hooks

[04:52] and languaging and opening sentences

[04:55] that grab their attention. Because

[04:57] something that's going to grab a

[04:58] 21-year-old college student athletes

[05:00] attention is very different than what's

[05:02] going to grab the attention of a

[05:03] 72-year-old grandmother of 17 kids who

[05:06] lives in the Middle East, right? Totally

[05:09] different things are going to grab their

[05:11] attention. And so the more you know

[05:13] about the pain points, the struggles,

[05:15] the dreams, the challenges, the

[05:18] financial status, the education level,

[05:20] the marital relationship status, the

[05:22] interests and hobbies and passions of

[05:23] your ideal audience, the better you're

[05:26] going to be able to create hooks that

[05:28] actually do their job of hooking them in

[05:30] and grabbing their attention. But

[05:32] admittedly, empathy is a skill set. It

[05:34] is something that is developed over

[05:36] time. You can't just pick out who your

[05:38] target audience is and then suddenly

[05:40] have empathy for them. You have to

[05:41] practice to get good at understanding

[05:44] what their needs, their desires, their

[05:46] wishes, their dreams, and all that other

[05:47] stuff actually is. Tip number two, and

[05:50] really the rest of the tips of my seven

[05:52] tips for improving your hooks are a lot

[05:54] more practical and tactical than

[05:56] empathy. But I will say I think empathy

[05:58] is the most important one. So with that

[06:00] being said, let's move on to tip number

[06:02] two, which is in regards to how long

[06:04] your hooks should be. Your hooks,

[06:07] generally speaking, should be between

[06:09] five and eight words. We at the Insta

[06:11] Club recently conducted a study of about

[06:14] 1,300 different viral Instagram reels.

[06:17] And for this analysis, we classified

[06:19] viral as any reel with more than 1

[06:22] million views. And we took all of those,

[06:24] we transcribed them, and then we took

[06:26] out the first sentence of the reel. And

[06:29] what we found was the ones that

[06:30] consistently performed the best and got

[06:32] the most views were between five and

[06:34] eight words long. I will tell you that

[06:37] you can go up to 12 words, but what we

[06:39] see is as soon as you use less than five

[06:42] or more than 12 words, the return on

[06:45] investment or the number of views and

[06:47] the amount of engagement that you're

[06:48] receiving, it starts to decline

[06:50] relatively rapidly. So sure, it's okay

[06:53] to have a four-word hook. It's okay to

[06:55] have a 15-word hook. And there are

[06:56] definitely outliers of people who went

[06:58] viral with 27 word hooks, but generally

[07:01] speaking, try to keep that first

[07:03] sentence to 5 to eight words. And when I

[07:06] say that first sentence, I don't

[07:07] necessarily just mean the words that

[07:09] you're saying because sure, you might be

[07:11] someone who does talking head reels or

[07:13] voiceover reels. And so that makes

[07:15] sense. I'm going to keep the first

[07:17] sentence that I say to 5 to eight words.

[07:19] But this also applies to those of you

[07:21] who primarily do meme reels or B-roll

[07:24] reels. The kinds of reels where you're

[07:26] not talking. There's no face on the

[07:28] screen talking to the camera, but

[07:30] there's just some text on the screen,

[07:32] maybe layered on top of a funny video or

[07:35] a B-roll video of you. Make that text on

[07:38] the screen follow the same general rule

[07:40] of five to eight words. Tip number three

[07:42] is to keep it simple, to dumb it down,

[07:46] to not use words in your hook that are

[07:49] above a fifth grade reading level. The

[07:52] simpler you can make your hooks, the

[07:54] better. And this is not because your

[07:56] followers are dumb, though I will admit

[07:58] that the average media literacy rate is

[08:00] declining. This is not because you are

[08:03] trying to attract lowhanging fruit. This

[08:06] is because most people are distracted. I

[08:08] mean, think about it. As you are

[08:09] watching or listening to this episode

[08:11] right now, you're likely doing at least

[08:13] one other thing. Maybe you're also

[08:14] scrolling on reels. Maybe you're also

[08:16] doing the dishes. Maybe you're also

[08:18] working out. Chances are you're at least

[08:20] doing something else while watching or

[08:22] listening to this. I highly doubt you're

[08:24] sitting in a classroom with this on your

[08:26] TV and you're like writing notes. If you

[08:27] are, take a picture, post this on your

[08:29] Instagram stories, and tag me cuz I need

[08:31] to see that unicorns like you still

[08:33] exist. But if you're like everyone else,

[08:36] you're probably distracted. you're

[08:37] probably doing multiple things at once.

[08:39] And so when the hook in your reel uses

[08:41] some fancy term or some acronym or

[08:45] insider lingo or just anything that your

[08:47] average follower would not understand,

[08:50] people don't take the time to stop and

[08:52] figure it out. They're not going to

[08:53] crack open a dictionary and a thesaurus

[08:56] and go to Google and start trying to

[08:57] figure out what those words and acronyms

[08:59] mean. They're probably just going to

[09:01] scroll away. When you confuse, you lose.

[09:04] One key thing that I just said that you

[09:06] might have missed is that you want the

[09:07] words to be understood by your ideal

[09:10] audience. So yes, dumb it down, keep it

[09:13] simple below a fifth grade reading

[09:14] level, but you should also consider

[09:16] where your ideal audience is at. And the

[09:19] ideal audience you are trying to attract

[09:22] might understand words and phrases that

[09:24] a different ideal audience might not.

[09:26] For example, I love Pokémon. I subscribe

[09:29] to a lot of Pokémon YouTube channels. I

[09:31] watch a lot of Pokémon videos on Tik Tok

[09:33] and on Instagram. And when a video about

[09:35] Pokémon comes up, they don't have to

[09:38] simplify their hook to say, "Hey, you

[09:40] know that video game that was

[09:41] popularized in the late 1990s that was

[09:44] originally called Pocket Monsters where

[09:46] you travel around and you try to capture

[09:48] and battle with different colorful

[09:50] monsters." They don't have to say that

[09:52] because they don't have to do that

[09:53] background. They don't have to give that

[09:54] context because their ideal target

[09:57] follower understands what Pokémon is.

[10:00] their ideal follower might understand

[10:01] some of the terms and topics that the

[10:04] average person on the planet might not.

[10:06] And so that's why it's important to

[10:07] understand who your target audience is

[10:10] because you don't need to dumb it down

[10:11] so far that like literally anyone could

[10:14] understand, but you do need to simplify

[10:16] it enough so that your average target

[10:18] audience member will understand. And I

[10:20] don't know about you, but it's been a

[10:21] while since I was in fifth grade, so I

[10:23] don't know exactly what a fifth grader's

[10:25] vocabulary level is. So, a simple way to

[10:28] check is just to take the hook that you

[10:31] plan on putting on your video or that

[10:32] you plan on saying at the beginning of

[10:34] your video, pop it into any basic AI

[10:36] tool. I usually just pop it into chat G

[10:38] TBT and then I will ask it, is this at

[10:41] or below a fifth grade reading level? Or

[10:43] if I have a hook that I've come up with

[10:45] that I think might be a little bit too

[10:47] wordy or too advanced, I will ask Chat

[10:49] GPT to help make it simpler or more

[10:51] concise or just easier to understand. An

[10:54] easy example of when I've done this

[10:55] wrong recently is I posted a talking

[10:59] head reel where my opening sentence I

[11:01] said to the camera if you loathe talking

[11:04] head videos and then I went on to talk

[11:06] about what you should do if you dislike

[11:09] creating talking head reels. But why did

[11:11] I use the word loathe? That was a

[11:13] mistake I made. I should have used the

[11:15] word hate or dread. Something that is

[11:17] simpler and easier to understand and

[11:19] easier to pronounce than loathe. like

[11:22] who was I trying to impress? Dumb it

[11:24] down. Keep it simple. More people will

[11:26] understand your content. More people

[11:27] will consume it. More people will

[11:29] engage. Tip number four also relates to

[11:31] the words that you're saying or the

[11:32] words that are on the screen. And it's

[11:34] be negative if possible. Now, when I say

[11:38] be negative, I don't mean that you have

[11:40] to be a Debbie Downer. And I know you

[11:42] might be a positive person. I myself

[11:44] consider myself quite an optimistic

[11:46] positive person. But that doesn't mean

[11:48] that you can't be negative in your

[11:50] hooks. And here's what I mean by that.

[11:52] Simply by using a negative word like

[11:55] don't, stop, avoid, stay away from,

[11:59] crash, diet, lose, etc. Those sorts of

[12:02] things are going to grab people's

[12:04] attention more than their positive

[12:06] counterparts. I bet, and you can check

[12:07] me on this right now, go to ESPN or go

[12:10] go to Sports Center's website, and I bet

[12:12] you a lot of their headlines will be

[12:15] negative. they will be the the team lost

[12:17] the game, the person got hurt, something

[12:19] like that. A great easy example of this

[12:21] that I saw recently on ESPN was that a

[12:24] team won a game, but rather than the

[12:26] headline being the team won the game,

[12:28] which would be positive, it said the

[12:31] team snapped a three-game losing streak.

[12:34] Snapped is a negative word. It's also

[12:36] quite a strong verb. It's not one, it's

[12:40] snapped, right? It's it's very

[12:41] aggressive. It's strong. And then they

[12:43] didn't just snap anything. They snapped

[12:45] a threegame losing streak. Again,

[12:48] focusing on the negative. It's

[12:50] ultimately a positive story, but the

[12:52] headline, also known as the hook, is

[12:54] framed in a negative point of view,

[12:56] which is more likely to grab our

[12:58] attention. Marketing is 80% psychology.

[13:01] I am a firm believer that making great

[13:04] content is more about psychology than it

[13:06] is about tricks and tips. And so, let's

[13:09] think about human psychology for a

[13:11] second. For hundreds of thousands of

[13:12] years, human beings have evolved to pay

[13:14] a lot more attention to the things that

[13:16] could kill us, things that could harm

[13:18] us, the things that are dangerous and

[13:19] negative, rather than the positive

[13:21] things. A couple hundred thousand years

[13:23] ago, when we were living in caves, we

[13:25] had to pay attention to the poisonous

[13:26] berry or the lion that was going to

[13:28] stalk us tonight a lot more than the

[13:31] pretty sunset or the butterfly that just

[13:33] flapped by. My one word of caution with

[13:36] negative hooks is you don't want to

[13:37] overdo it. Unfortunately, I can't give

[13:39] you an exact statistic or an exact

[13:41] percentage of the time that you should

[13:42] be negative versus positive. But if

[13:45] every single one of or let's say greater

[13:47] than 80% I told you I wasn't going to

[13:49] give you a percentage and then I did. If

[13:51] you do more than 80% of your content

[13:53] with a negative hook, it can start to

[13:55] have diminishing returns because over

[13:57] time people stop paying attention to

[14:00] your negative hooks because everything

[14:01] is negative. every single hook that you

[14:03] have is so in their face that they kind

[14:06] of get bored with it and then they

[14:07] either unfollow or they become

[14:09] disengaged. So use negative hooks, but

[14:11] don't use them on every single post that

[14:13] you make. My fifth tip for improving

[14:15] your hooks has nothing to do with the

[14:17] text on the screen or the words that we

[14:19] just said, but it's arguably more

[14:21] important and that is the visual. What

[14:24] is on the screen? Not just in those

[14:26] first 3 seconds, but even in that first

[14:28] half a second, even in those first few

[14:30] frames, what are people seeing? Is that

[14:33] going to grab their attention? A few

[14:35] quick things to keep in mind when you're

[14:36] considering the visuals of your hooks is

[14:38] number one, brighter is usually better.

[14:41] We've seen that videos that just have a

[14:43] slightly brighter hook average about 60%

[14:45] more engagement. So, it doesn't mean

[14:47] that you need to make your hooks like

[14:48] overexposed and super bright, but just

[14:51] making sure that they're not dimly lit.

[14:54] making sure that you have vibrant colors

[14:56] on that you maybe slightly turn up your

[14:58] brightness or your exposure or your

[14:59] saturation so that the video really pops

[15:02] and stands out from those before it.

[15:04] That can be a great way to visually grab

[15:06] people's attention. Besides that, we

[15:08] also see that having a person's face and

[15:10] especially their eyes on the screen

[15:13] within the first second really improves

[15:15] retention. People are more interested in

[15:18] people most of the time. And so when

[15:19] there's a human being, especially a

[15:21] human being who we can see their eyes,

[15:22] right? they're not wearing sunglasses or

[15:24] something in those first few seconds.

[15:26] It's more likely to grab our attention.

[15:28] We also find that hooks perform a lot

[15:30] better when there is a visual prop or

[15:32] element or even just like clip art,

[15:34] something on the screen that relates to

[15:37] the topic of the video. A mistake that I

[15:39] think people often make is they think,

[15:41] "Oh, I need to grab people's attention.

[15:43] So, at the beginning of this video, I'm

[15:45] going to put an emoji of a monkey or I'm

[15:47] going to put a a gif of a dancing clown

[15:49] because that's really exciting and

[15:51] that'll grab people's attention and it

[15:53] might, but it's also going to really

[15:55] confuse them and frustrate them and make

[15:57] it feel like you're just trying to gify

[15:59] or fool them into continuing to watch.

[16:02] And so, don't use silly props. Don't add

[16:05] unnecessary elements. Make sure that if

[16:07] you're doing a video about rock

[16:09] climbing, you are rock climbing. or

[16:11] maybe there's a rock climber in the

[16:12] background or maybe you're at a rock

[16:13] climbing gym, but don't use some random

[16:15] unnecessary prop or element. My sixth

[16:18] tip for improving your hooks is to

[16:20] consider the audio. We often times

[16:22] forget that audio is half of video. So,

[16:25] people spend so much time focusing on

[16:27] getting an HD camera and what's on the

[16:29] screen and is it clear and high contrast

[16:31] when we forget that audio is so

[16:34] important. I'll never forget I was

[16:36] having a conversation with a well-known

[16:37] YouTuber when I was first starting to

[16:39] blow up and have a lot of followers on

[16:41] Instagram and he was like, "Dude, why

[16:43] are you not using an external mic for

[16:46] your reels?" And I was like, "What do

[16:48] you mean? Is my phone's microphone

[16:50] quality not good enough?" And he was

[16:52] like, "Look at this one." And he played

[16:53] me my reel from that day and it sounded

[16:55] like I was like filming in like a tunnel

[16:58] or something. Like there was echoes and

[16:59] it just sounded super hollow. And so

[17:01] luckily this was a good friend and so he

[17:03] gave me a microphone. But to this day I

[17:06] have never not considered my audio

[17:09] before creating my content or before

[17:12] pressing post. So besides just the

[17:13] video, make sure that you're paying

[17:15] attention to the audio in those first 3

[17:17] seconds. Three things that you can do to

[17:19] easily improve the audio version of your

[17:22] hooks is number one, make sure that your

[17:24] audio levels are equal. Basically, make

[17:27] sure that your music isn't too high and

[17:28] your voice isn't too low or vice versa.

[17:30] You want to make sure that things are

[17:32] balanced and so that as someone is

[17:33] listening to it, what they are hearing

[17:36] is what you want them to hear. Speaking

[17:38] of making sure that they are hearing

[17:39] what you want them to hear, get yourself

[17:41] an external microphone. If you don't

[17:43] have a good friend who's just going to

[17:44] lend you one like I did, go on Amazon or

[17:47] go to your local tech store and just

[17:49] purchase a 10, 15, $20 external

[17:52] microphone. I do find that the ones that

[17:54] plug right into your device, whether

[17:56] you're using your phone or a

[17:58] professional camera, the ones that plug

[17:59] right in are actually usually better and

[18:02] cheaper until you get to a certain

[18:04] point. Yes, there are some distinctions,

[18:06] and yes, there are some great USB

[18:08] wireless microphones, but honestly, the

[18:10] plug-in ones work great. You don't have

[18:12] to worry about charging them oftent

[18:14] times, and they produce really great

[18:16] sound quality. Additionally, when you're

[18:17] improving the audio quality of your

[18:19] hooks, consider the music that's playing

[18:22] in the background, using popular songs,

[18:25] trending audios, or even just stock

[18:28] copyright free music can really improve

[18:31] your video. Maybe you're going to add an

[18:33] inspirational piano onto the background

[18:36] of your motivational message. Maybe

[18:38] you're going to add some music that

[18:39] really builds suspense and tension to

[18:42] keep someone watching to the end. Maybe

[18:44] you're going to use some rock and roll

[18:45] music to go along with your more

[18:47] aggressive, in-your-face video. Music is

[18:50] so important for eliciting an emotional

[18:52] response and getting your audience to

[18:54] continue watching. There are some really

[18:56] funny examples on YouTube that you can

[18:58] find where they'll take a popular

[18:59] Hollywood movie and they'll remove the

[19:02] music from the background. So, you can

[19:04] still hear the native sounds that were

[19:05] in the scene. You can still hear the

[19:07] characters talking, but without the

[19:08] music, the feeling is totally different.

[19:10] And then last but not least, sound

[19:12] effects can be used really well. Don't

[19:14] use the silly, goofy sound effects like

[19:17] alarm bells for no reason. Be

[19:19] intentional and make sure that your

[19:21] sound effects actually relate to

[19:22] whatever the video or whatever the topic

[19:24] is. And my final tip for improving your

[19:27] hooks before I share some examples and

[19:28] ideas with you is to create what's

[19:30] called a curiosity gap. The curiosity

[19:33] gap is a little bit of a Goldilocks

[19:35] situation. And let me tell you what I

[19:36] mean by that. when you are planning out

[19:38] what that first sentence is going to be

[19:40] or what your hook is going to include,

[19:42] you want to elicit enough curiosity that

[19:44] someone wants to keep watching. But if

[19:47] you elicit too much curiosity, if

[19:49] there's too much ambiguity or too much

[19:51] unknown in the beginning of your video,

[19:54] again, you're going to confuse and

[19:56] you're going to lose. So, when that

[19:57] curiosity gap is too wide, people just

[20:00] aren't going to keep watching. They're

[20:01] not interested. Maybe they don't know

[20:03] what your video is about. Maybe there's

[20:04] too many words that they didn't quite

[20:06] understand and so they're going to

[20:08] scroll. On the other hand, on the

[20:09] opposite end of the spectrum, there can

[20:11] also be curiosity gaps that are too

[20:13] narrow where you kind of spill all the

[20:15] tea and you give all the answers and you

[20:17] share everything that everyone would

[20:18] want to know in those first few seconds.

[20:21] For example, maybe there's a real estate

[20:22] agent who's making a real helping other

[20:25] real estate agents to sell homes. And so

[20:27] in their hook, they're like, "Okay, I'm

[20:28] going to use negative words. I'm going

[20:30] to keep it short and simple. And so I'm

[20:32] going to say something like, "The reason

[20:34] you're not selling homes is because

[20:36] you're not doing enough open houses."

[20:39] Well, that was negative. And I don't I

[20:42] didn't count how many words that was,

[20:43] but it was relatively short. It was

[20:44] relatively simple. But you spilled all

[20:47] the tea. You gave me everything I need

[20:48] to know. There was no curiosity gap.

[20:51] There's no reason for me to continue

[20:53] watching your video because either I

[20:56] agree and I'm like, "You're right. I'm

[20:57] probably not doing enough open houses

[20:59] and so I'm just going to start doing

[21:00] that." or I disagree. I'm like, "Yeah,

[21:02] no, I disagree. I'm actually doing

[21:04] enough open houses. I have a different

[21:05] problem." And either way, I already know

[21:08] what you're going to tell me and so I'm

[21:09] not interested in continuing to watch

[21:11] the video. So, that would be an example

[21:12] of a curiosity gap that's too small. On

[21:15] the other end of the spectrum, a real

[21:16] estate agent might say, "Here's why

[21:19] you're not having success." That's so

[21:22] vague. Success in what terms? Financial

[21:25] lifestyle. Here's why you like who is

[21:28] you? real estate agents, people who are

[21:29] selling homes, people who are trying to

[21:31] learn to do a 360 on a snowboard. Like,

[21:34] who are we even talking to? What is

[21:35] success? It's so vague. And your thought

[21:38] is, oh well, it's so vague it could

[21:40] apply to anyone. But the reality is when

[21:42] you try to appeal to everyone, you

[21:45] appeal to no one effectively. And so, we

[21:48] got to find that Goldilocks zone. We got

[21:50] to find that sweet spot where the

[21:52] curiosity gap is interesting people and

[21:54] they want to continue watching to hear

[21:56] what else you have to say, but you're

[21:58] not withholding too much information or

[21:59] giving away too much too soon. Those are

[22:01] my seven tips for improving your hooks.

[22:03] I will throw in one more bonus tip,

[22:05] which is that success leaves clues. So,

[22:08] as you're scrolling through social

[22:09] media, just pay attention to your own

[22:11] consumption habits. If there's a video

[22:13] that really grabs your attention, it

[22:15] really hooks you in, it really makes you

[22:16] want to keep watching, just pay

[22:18] attention to why. Was there a word in

[22:19] the hook? Was there something they did?

[22:21] Was there something in the video, in the

[22:22] audio, in the visual? Just pay attention

[22:24] to how you use and consume on social

[22:26] media? And you'll start to pick up on

[22:29] little hooks and little ideas that you

[22:31] can incorporate and apply to your own

[22:33] content. With that being said, I'm going

[22:34] to share some of those clues with you

[22:36] right now. Here are seven different hook

[22:39] ideas that are proven to be effective

[22:41] and they can be used in almost any niche

[22:44] on repeat. The first one is what I call

[22:46] the problem hooks. These hooks are all

[22:49] about identifying a pain point, a

[22:51] challenge, or a problem that your ideal

[22:53] audience is dealing with. Again, going

[22:55] all the way back to tip number one, we

[22:57] got to empathize with our ideal audience

[22:59] to truly know what they are struggling

[23:01] with. A mistake that I see so many

[23:03] people making with their hooks is

[23:05] they're calling out pain points that

[23:07] your audience doesn't already know that

[23:09] they have. And here's the key

[23:11] distinction. You might know that your

[23:13] audience has this pain point, but if

[23:15] they don't already know that they have

[23:17] that painoint, then you have double the

[23:19] work. You don't just have the work of

[23:21] hooking them into your video, but you

[23:23] also have the hook of convincing them

[23:25] that this is a problem that they didn't

[23:26] know that they had. For example, if

[23:28] you're in the fitness niche, you could

[23:30] say something like, "If you're working

[23:32] out 5 days a week, but not seeing

[23:34] results, watch this." Or if you're in

[23:36] the parenting toddlers niche, you could

[23:38] say, "If you're tired of repeating

[23:40] yourself thousands of times a day, try

[23:43] this instead." Here are some other

[23:44] examples in other niches. You're messing

[23:46] up your reels by putting your face in

[23:48] the middle of the video. There's an

[23:49] imaginary line that divides the middle

[23:51] and upper third of your video, and it's

[23:52] called the ey line. By lining up your

[23:54] eyes with the ey line, your followers

[23:56] will stay more engaged. To make sure you

[23:57] remember this for your next reel, hit

[23:59] the bookmark button and save this post.

[24:10] The second category of hooks is what I

[24:12] like to call hot take hooks. These are

[24:15] the unpopular opinions, the

[24:17] controversial points of view, or just

[24:19] the unexpected plot twists that are

[24:22] contrary to the norm. For example, if

[24:24] you're a nutritionist, you could say

[24:25] something like, "Counting calories is

[24:27] the reason you're not losing weight." Or

[24:30] if you're in the mental health niche,

[24:31] maybe your hook is going to be daily

[24:33] journaling is actually making your

[24:35] anxiety worse. Unpopular opinion. If

[24:38] it's taking you more than a few minutes

[24:39] to make your reels, it's taking you too

[24:41] long. Here's an easy to make three-step

[24:43] reel that is proven to get more shares.

[24:45] Step number one, record a clip of

[24:47] yourself saying unpopular opinion. Then

[24:49] record a second clip where you say your

[24:51] unpopular opinion. And then just finish

[24:53] your reel by saying, "Share this if you

[24:55] agree." And that's it. You're done. And

[24:57] if you agree that it's been taking you

[24:58] too long to make your reels, comment I

[25:00] agree down below.

[25:08] Hook idea number three is what I like to

[25:10] call the curiosity gap hook. And yes,

[25:13] while all hooks should create some

[25:14] curiosity, these ones are all about

[25:17] peing people's interest, getting them to

[25:19] lean forward in their seat and be

[25:21] curious to learn more. For example, if

[25:23] you're in the personal development

[25:24] niche, maybe you're going to use the

[25:25] hook, I bet I can get your lazy ass to

[25:28] stop procrastination in less than two

[25:30] minutes with this easy trick. Or if

[25:33] you're in the real estate investing

[25:34] niche, you could use a hook like with

[25:36] this secret hack, you could buy your

[25:38] first investment property with next to

[25:40] nothing down.

[25:52] Hook idea number five is one of my

[25:54] personal favorites. It's one that I use

[25:56] all the time and it's one of our top

[25:58] performing hooks in our paid media, also

[26:01] known as the ads that we run. We see

[26:02] that this style of hook works really

[26:04] well in our advertising and it's the

[26:06] shocking stat hook. Basically, for this

[26:09] hook, you lead with some sort of

[26:10] statistic or numerical value that would

[26:12] really surprise people. I do want to

[26:14] encourage you do your research. Use real

[26:16] stats. Don't just make stuff up. But if

[26:18] you can find stats or data that shock

[26:21] people and surprise them, it can be a

[26:23] really powerful way to peique their

[26:24] interest and get them to want to learn a

[26:26] little bit more. For example, if you're

[26:28] in the sleeping niche, maybe your hook

[26:30] is going to be something like, and by

[26:32] the way, these stats are totally made

[26:33] up, so I don't know if they're true, but

[26:35] your hook could be something like, "Did

[26:37] you know missing just 30 minutes of

[26:39] sleep reduces your productivity by 30%."

[26:42] Or if you're in the dog training niche,

[26:44] maybe the opening stat, and again, I

[26:46] don't know if this is a real stat. Did

[26:48] you know that more than 50% of dogs are

[26:51] overweight? Again, these stats are very

[26:53] surprising. They make people say, "Wo, I

[26:55] didn't know that." And then they're

[26:56] curious to hear your explanation as to

[26:59] why 90% of people miss this in their

[27:01] captions. Everyone, myself included, is

[27:03] always talking about the hooks on your

[27:04] reels. But then when it comes to

[27:06] captions, you're just winging it. Here's

[27:08] the fix. The first line of your caption

[27:10] is by far the most important and it

[27:12] should be treated like a second hook.

[27:14] Just like you're putting in the effort

[27:15] to come up with a good hook for your

[27:16] reel, put in that same effort to come up

[27:18] with a good hook for your caption.

[27:20] Otherwise, people probably aren't going

[27:21] to read it and you're wasting your time

[27:22] typing it. And if you want a free list

[27:24] of caption starters, I have some listed

[27:26] in the caption below. Feel free to

[27:27] screenshot and save this post.

[27:38] Hook idea number six is what I like to

[27:40] call the call out hooks. And essentially

[27:42] for these ones, you are going to name

[27:45] your target market by name. You're going

[27:47] to call them out. You're going to say

[27:49] exactly who your video is intended for.

[27:52] For example, if you create online guides

[27:54] for elementary school teachers, you

[27:56] could use a hook like, "If you're a

[27:58] teacher who's planning their lessons on

[27:59] the night before, watch this." Or if you

[28:02] help people learn to rock climb, you

[28:04] could use a hook like, "If you have less

[28:06] than 10 days of rock climbing

[28:07] experience, here's what you need to

[28:09] know." Basically, when you call out a

[28:10] group of people by their exact name, the

[28:13] people who go by that name and who

[28:14] recognize or identify with that group

[28:16] go, "Oh, hey, that's me." And then they

[28:18] keep listening. If you aren't using AI

[28:20] every single day as a business owner,

[28:22] you're going to be left behind. You

[28:24] don't have to be an AI expert, but you

[28:26] need to at least be AI curious. Now, I

[28:28] don't know about you, but I'm often

[28:29] overwhelmed by the seemingly neverending

[28:32] stream of new AI tools that I have to

[28:34] learn. The reality is 95% of them are

[28:37] junk and you don't need to learn them.

[28:38] If you can just use chat GPT, but use it

[28:40] better, you're going to be ahead of 90%

[28:42] of other business owners. So, to help

[28:44] you out, I put together a free list of

[28:46] 16 Chat GPT prompts. These are the exact

[28:49] prompts I use on a daily basis to help

[28:51] me create better content, write scripts,

[28:53] and work smarter. Comment chat, and I'll

[28:55] send you that list right now for free.

[29:57] And then last but not least, the seventh

[29:59] hook idea is transformation hooks. These

[30:03] are hooks that show off a before and

[30:04] after or some sort of change over time.

[30:07] The two key elements in a transformation

[30:08] hook are number one, the thing that is

[30:11] actually transforming and then number

[30:13] two, the time frame in which it

[30:15] transformed. Again, I don't want you to

[30:17] spew misinformation. I don't want you to

[30:18] make up stories, but if you can

[30:20] highlight examples of massive

[30:22] transformations or transformations in a

[30:24] relatively short time frame, it really

[30:26] grabs people's attention and makes them

[30:28] want to learn more. For example, if

[30:30] you're in the finance niche, maybe

[30:31] you're going to take a B-roll of

[30:33] yourself typing on a computer or writing

[30:35] in a notebook and then you're going to

[30:36] add some text on the screen that says,

[30:39] "Before I started budgeting, stressed.

[30:41] After I started budgeting, debt-free in

[30:44] 2 months." Or if you're in the skincare

[30:45] niche, you could use a hook that was

[30:47] like, "I used to be embarrassed to go

[30:49] out in public, but now my skin is

[30:51] totally clear in less than one month.

[30:53] Here's how." I did an experiment to see

[30:55] what would happen if I posted 100 trial

[30:58] reels in one day.

[30:59] Boy, have you lost your mind, cuz I'll

[31:01] help you find it.

[31:02] I didn't lose my mind, but I kind of

[31:04] broke my Instagram in the process. But I

[31:06] also got tens of thousands of free views

[31:07] and a ton of new followers. But my

[31:09] biggest takeaway of all from the study

[31:10] is that you need to be posting more

[31:12] trial reels. If you want my exact

[31:14] advanced trial reels strategy and to

[31:17] learn exactly what I learned from that

[31:19] experiment, comment the word vid on this

[31:20] reel right now and I'll send you the

[31:21] link to my full YouTube video where I

[31:23] explained everything in depth. And I'll

[31:25] even tell you how I've used trial reels

[31:26] to go viral multiple times.

[32:08] Now, wait, wait. Before we go, I do have

[32:10] one last pro tip that is super helpful

[32:12] to figure out, are my hooks actually the

[32:15] problem? Because you might be creating

[32:17] great content and maybe your hooks are

[32:19] really good, but the rest of your video

[32:21] is where it's falling flat. Instagram

[32:24] actually gave us a statistic to look up

[32:26] whether or not our hooks are performing

[32:28] well. And before I show you that, don't

[32:30] forget to hit subscribe if you found

[32:32] this valuable today. Every single

[32:33] Thursday, I put out a new episode on the

[32:35] latest tricks and tips and strategies to

[32:37] growing and having success on social

[32:39] media. So, don't forget to hit

[32:41] subscribe. But now, let me show you this

[32:42] statistic. All you have to do when

[32:44] viewing your individual reel is tap the

[32:46] view insights button and then scroll

[32:48] down. down towards the bottom of the

[32:50] page, you will see a statistic that's

[32:51] called view rate past first 3 seconds.

[32:54] It's a mouthful, but basically this

[32:56] statistic is telling us how many people

[32:59] or what percentage of your viewers are

[33:01] watching after the 3se secondond mark.

[33:04] It will show you this pink bar, and if

[33:05] the pink bar surpasses the little tick

[33:08] mark, that means that the average viewer

[33:10] is watching for more than 3 seconds. If

[33:12] it's right at the tick mark, that means

[33:13] that your average viewer is watching for

[33:15] 3 seconds. And if it's less than the

[33:17] tick mark, then that means we really

[33:19] need to improve our hooks because that

[33:20] means that the average person isn't even

[33:22] watching the first 3 seconds. Also,

[33:25] below that, you'll see an actual

[33:27] percentage where it tells you what your

[33:29] average is. So, you'll be able to see

[33:31] what your baseline is. And I would

[33:32] recommend writing that down today so you

[33:34] know, hey, my average views past first 3

[33:37] seconds for my typical reel is 41.5

[33:40] seconds. Okay, I'm going to write that

[33:41] down and then see a month from now. Have

[33:44] your hooks improved after watching this

[33:46] video and implementing what you learned

[33:48] today in this podcast? Is that

[33:50] percentage increasing? And one last

[33:52] thing before I let you go. If you do

[33:54] want a free list of 25 viral hook ideas,

[33:57] this is the actual list of the top 25

[34:00] most popular hooks that we found from

[34:02] that analysis of all of those viral

[34:04] videos. That list of top 25 totally

[34:06] free. I'll put that link down in the

[34:08] show notes below so you can download it

[34:09] and check it out. Don't forget to

[34:10] subscribe. I will see you next Thursday.

[34:12] And as always, happy networking.