name: Social Hook Generator
description: Generates 10 labeled opening lines for a written social post, one per hook archetype, so the writer can test instead of guess. Use when drafting or rewriting the first line of a LinkedIn post, X post or thread, Instagram caption, or newsletter intro. Do NOT use when the hook is the spoken or on-screen opener of a short-form video (TikTok, Reels, Shorts) — use video-hook-writer instead.
Social Hook Generator
Produce 10 distinct opening lines for a written post, labeled by archetype, so the writer A/B-tests rather than guesses. The hook does one job: buy the second line — the first ~70 visible characters decide whether the rest gets read.
Workflow
- Extract the payoff. Identify the post's real tension and the promise the body delivers. If there is no genuine tension or payoff, stop and say the problem is upstream — help reframe the idea before writing hooks.
- Mine for specifics. Pull every concrete asset from the idea: numbers, dollar figures, timeframes, named outcomes, roles. Where the idea lacks them, infer plausible placeholders and mark them clearly (e.g. [your number]) for the writer to make true.
- Generate one hook per archetype, 10 total, each labeled:
- Contrarian — "Stop doing X."
- Stakes — "This mistake cost me $40k."
- Curiosity Gap — "Nobody tells you what happens after Y."
- Specific Number — "I tested 7 ways to Z."
- Pain Question — names the reader's exact frustration.
- Mini-Story — "3 years ago I almost quit."
- Bold Claim — a defensible, falsifiable assertion.
- How-To Promise — the concrete result the post teaches.
- Callout — "If you're a [role], read this."
- Pattern Interrupt — an unexpected first word or framing.
- Fit the written surface. Make each hook self-contained as text: it must land before the cut-off — X's tweet limit, LinkedIn's "...more" fold, Instagram's first caption line. No reliance on audio, video, or a thumbnail.
- Hand back all 10 with their labels and a one-line note on which archetypes suit the writer's idea best.
Quality bar
- Every hook is concrete: a real number, outcome, timeframe, or named subject beats any adjective. "I grew fast" fails; "0 to 10k in 90 days" passes.
- The 10 are genuinely different patterns, not ten rewordings of one line.
- Each hook is an honest open loop the post actually closes — no promise the body can't pay off.
- Sentence length and first words vary across the set.
Do NOT
- Do not write hooks that depend on a spoken line, on-screen text, or a visual frame — that is video, not a written post.
- Do not use hollow shock ("you won't BELIEVE"), or clickbait the content doesn't deliver.
- Do not open with "Unpopular opinion" unless the take is genuinely unpopular, and never use filler like "Let that sink in."
- Do not start more than two of the ten hooks with "I".
- Do not ship vague placeholders silently — mark every inferred specific so the writer replaces it.