So… You’re scrolling on LinkedIn & seeing new posts every second as you go down your feed. All of a sudden, you see an eye-catching line and click on “..more”. Congratulation! You've just witnessed a Leading Hook. Most likely, you read the entire post and liked & commented too.
The entire behind-the-scenes process was a well-known LinkedIn content strategy called “LH LinkedIn Strategy”.
In this Post, I’ll break down how this strategy works. Why is it so popular among influential LinkedIn creators & what not to do when implementing this process? Let’s get started:
The LH stands for “Leading Hook”. It’s a one-liner that grabs your attention and leaves you on a cliffhanger. You have to click on the post to know the rest of the story.
The first line provides some context for the post. Just enough to get your interest spiked and leaves you wondering what happened next.
The second line tells you something happened, but doesn’t tell you what exactly happened.
This gets you hooked on the content and leads you to the rest of the story. Hence the name “Leading Hook Strategy”.
It’s most common on LinkedIn. However, this can be used on almost any platform to get your audience engaged with your content.
Posts with a Leading Hook get 3-8 times more engagement than posts without a leading Hook. Plus, there’s a snowball effect at work
Almost every Top LinkedIn creator from different niches use this strategy. It inspires upcoming creators to follow the same strategy. And so on…
But the main reason is that it works! LinkedIn's algorithm pushes content to a broad audience if it gets good engagement.
& The Leading Hook Strategy uses that to its advantage. It gets more visibility. Encourages the creator to make more content with the same structure.
Some of the most influential LinkedIn creators such as Jasmin (Jay) Alić, Lara Acosta & many more, use this strategy to gain millions of impressions on LinkedIn.
Although you see the Hook at the beginning of every post, it’s often written at the very last. Here are the steps to creating a proper hook:
There’s no way around it. You need to have a story or experience or experiment results to write about. It needs to be original and unique. Write your post in small chunks if you are starting.
Include insights, results, and lessons you learned in each paragraph. You can break each paragraph to keep the readers engaged throughout the content.
Make sure your content is providing value to the reader. If it doesn’t provide value to your readers, they’ll move on without reacting or leaving a comment. It can give negative signals to the algorithm.
Almost every popular creator on LinkedIn has 3-5 sentences in a paragraph. This makes it easy to read.
Cut out any fluff. Avoid technical jargon. This makes your content more shareable. Here’s a LinkedIn post with tips on writing better copies:
After you’ve written your post, find all the key points of your post.
These can be the results or outcomes of your experiment. Actionable steps you took while conducting the activity. How did it affect you? What can others learn from your post etc.
You’ll find multiple key points or lessons in a single post. Note them all. They’ll come in handy at the 5th step.
This is often the hardest part for beginners. You need to condense the post to a single line. Ideally, it’ll be less than 150 characters.
Only the first ~200 characters are shown before readers have to click “see more”. You have to give the context of the post within these first 150 characters. The rest will create a cliffhanger.
The second part of the hook is what drives them to click on your post. You can try some of the most popular cliffhanger techniques in your post.
You can tease your readers. Have unfinished sentences. Play with their emotions. Just get them craving to know the rest of the story.
However, don’t use any clickbait lines in your hook. This will make you look desperate for attention.
Look at the key points of your post that you noted on the 2nd step. Combine one key point with a cliffhanger to create a hook.
Mix and match your keypoints and come up with 5-10 versions. Eliminate most of them. Pick the 2-3 best ones.
If you think you have a bias, ask a friend or coworker who has a taste for creative things. Take the best 2 hooks and move to the next step.
After you’ve identified your best hooks. Do A/B testing with your hooks structure. Everyone has a different sweet spot. You need to balance the main point with your cliffhanger intensity.
Place the hook at the start of your main post. Double-check for any misspellings. Use tools like Grammarly
You can also use a LinkedIn Post preview tool to see how it’ll look on different devices.
Make sure it is displayed properly on all devices.
The last thing you want is your hook to be hidden below the see more button.
Here's a video to help you understand better:
Although the point of the LH LinkedIn content strategy is to grab your readers' instant attention, that doesn’t mean you can get away with anything. Here are a few things to avoid in your Hooks to get the best results:
In short, the “LH” LinkedIn content strategy is a great way to gain visibility and engagement. Your posts are more likely to get more impressions if you can execute this strategy properly. Get inspiration from top creators and follow their structure till you find your flow. Just avoid the common pitfalls and you’ll be peachy.
Still confused? Leave us a question or send me a DM & I’ll get back to you ASAP!
Best of Luck 🙂