Hook

A hook is the opening line or two of a social media post — the only portion visible in the feed before a reader taps "see more" — whose single job is to earn that tap.

Built and maintained by Oded Tsamir, founder of Liftli · last reviewed July 2026

The hook matters because of how feeds are built, not because of any mystical copywriting law. LinkedIn truncates most posts at roughly 140 characters on mobile and 210 on desktop, X shows a few lines before the fold, and Substack Notes clips longer entries. Everything after that point is invisible until someone chooses to expand it. So a post with a brilliant middle and a flat first line does not get judged as mediocre — it does not get judged at all. The expand is the first gate, and almost every downstream metric sits behind it.

The common misconception is that hooks are about drama. "I got fired on my birthday" style openers do pull expands, but they set up a promise the rest of the post usually cannot pay off, and readers learn to skip you. The more durable pattern is specificity: a concrete number, a named tradeoff, an unexpected claim you actually intend to defend. "We cut our onboarding from 11 steps to 3 and churn got worse" works because it is a real thing that happened and the reader genuinely cannot guess the ending.

Neither LinkedIn nor X publicly documents how heavily the opening line is weighted in ranking, so treat any exact claim with suspicion. What is mechanically clear is that expands and the reading time that follows are observable engagement signals, and the hook is the only lever that controls whether they ever occur. Write the post first, then write five hooks for it, then pick the one that is true and hardest to predict.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a LinkedIn hook be?

Keep a LinkedIn hook inside the first ~140 characters, which is roughly what mobile shows before the "see more" cutoff (desktop shows closer to ~210). That is typically one to three short lines. Write the first line so it can stand alone as a complete, intriguing statement, then use a line break before your second line so the preview does not end mid-sentence, which reads as sloppy and costs expands.

What makes a good hook versus clickbait?

A good hook makes a specific promise the post then keeps; clickbait makes a vague or exaggerated promise it cannot keep. The test is simple: after reading your whole post, would someone feel the opening line was accurate? Specificity is what separates them — real numbers, named constraints, and genuine contrarian claims hold up on the second read, while manufactured drama trains your audience to scroll past you.

Should I use a question as my hook?

Usually no. Question hooks like "Ever struggle with productivity?" are easy for a reader to answer silently and scroll on, which is the opposite of what you want. Statements work better because they create an open loop the reader has to expand to close. If you do use a question, make it one the reader genuinely cannot answer without your post — specific, not rhetorical.

Put it into practice

Hook Generator — Generate and compare multiple opening lines for a post you have already written. Open the free tool →

Related terms

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Hook

Frequently asked questions

How long should a LinkedIn hook be?

What makes a good hook versus clickbait?

Should I use a question as my hook?

Related terms

Knowing the term is the easy part.