On LinkedIn only the first two or three lines of a post show before the see more cut. On a phone that is often fewer than 210 characters. Those lines are the hook, and they decide whether anyone reads the rest.
What a good hook does
- It is specific. "I lost our biggest client in March" beats "Some thoughts on client relationships".
- It opens a gap. The reader wants to know what happened, why, or how.
- It is honest. Promise only what the post delivers. People remember a bait and switch.
- It is short. One line, then a line break. White space makes it easy to read on a phone.
Ten patterns that work
- The mistake: "I made this hiring mistake for five years."
- The contrarian view: "Most advice about cold email is wrong for small teams."
- The number: "3 things I check before every client call."
- The result first: "We cut onboarding from two weeks to three days."
- The question: "Would you hire someone with no degree and a great portfolio?"
- Before and after: "A year ago I dreaded Mondays. Now they are my favourite day."
- The confession: "I almost shut the company down last spring."
- The myth: "You do not need to post every day to grow on LinkedIn."
- The how to: "How I write a week of posts in one hour."
- The story: "At 6am my phone buzzed. It was our largest customer."
Use the pattern as a frame and fill it with your own experience. A hook built from a real moment always beats a template filled with generic words.
Mistakes to avoid
- Starting with "I am excited to announce". Lead with what the reader gets instead.
- Writing a long first paragraph. Break it after the first line.
- Using every hook trick at once. One clear idea is enough.
- Clickbait that the post does not pay off.
Test before you post
Read only your first two lines on a phone. Would you tap see more? If not, rewrite them before anything else. In SocialBat the LinkedIn preview shows exactly where the cut falls, and the hook generator suggests several first lines in different styles so you can pick the strongest.
