Hook Generator for Short Video and Social Posts

How to use the hook generator

1. Type your topic. A short noun phrase works best, like "sourdough bread" or "customer onboarding". Add an audience if you have one, and the call-out hooks will name them.
2. Pick an angle and a platform. Teach, sell, entertain or provoke changes which hooks come first. The platform sets the length budget and whether you get a spoken line with on-screen text (video), a single line (posts) or primary text with a headline version (ads).
3. Filter the formulas. All eight are on by default. Turn some off to see more of the ones that suit you, and add a keyword if every line should carry a search term.
4. Star, copy or send it on. Star the lines you like and copy them all at once, or send a video hook straight to the TikTok script generator to build the rest of the video.

The 8 hook formulas, and why each one works

Every hook the tool writes is labelled with one of eight formulas, so you learn the pattern instead of only copying a line. Here is each one with its template, a worked line on a neutral topic (meal prep), and the reason it tends to stop a scroll.

No formula guarantees viral hooks, on TikTok, Instagram or anywhere else. The useful habit is to write two or three hooks from different formulas for the same post, then keep the one that sounds most like you.

Spoken hook vs on-screen hook

Short video needs two hooks at once. The spoken line carries the idea for people with the sound on. The on-screen text catches everyone watching muted, and it has to be read in the time it takes to decide whether to stay. Those are different jobs, so the tool writes them differently.

The spoken line is a full, natural sentence, kept to 16 words. The on-screen version is a compressed headline of 7 words or fewer that usually drops the topic, because the video already shows it. Each video hook also comes with an idea for the opening shot, since what moves in frame in the first moment matters as much as the words. Both word budgets are our rules of thumb for readability, not limits set by TikTok, Instagram or YouTube.

Hooks by platform

Social media hooks change shape with the platform: how much text shows before the cut, whether anyone hears you, and how the characters are counted.

• Reels, TikTok and Shorts: video hooks get a spoken line, an on-screen line and an opening shot. Strong TikTok hooks usually start talking straight away, with no greeting or intro.
• LinkedIn: the hook is the text above the "see more" cut. LinkedIn does not publish where that cut falls, so the tool keeps hooks to 140 characters, an estimate from community measurements on mobile. To write the rest of the post, use the LinkedIn post generator.
• X: hooks are counted the way X counts them (links count 23 and emoji 2) against the 280-character post limit. The Twitter post generator builds the full post or thread.
• Facebook and Instagram feed: neither app publishes where a caption folds, so hooks are kept to 125 characters, the primary-text length Meta's ads guide recommends for feed ads, as a safe estimate.
• Ads: primary text up to 125 characters plus a headline version of 7 words or fewer, so you can test the same angle in both slots.

From hook to finished post

A hook is only the first line. For video, send it to the TikTok script generator, which builds timed beats, on-screen text and a call to action around it. For a text post, the social media post creator adds a body, a call to action and hashtags.

If you are stuck on what to post rather than how to open it, start with the full list of social media post ideas, see finished posts in our social media post examples, or run the content idea generator. For the lines that come after the hook, our guide on how to write engaging captions covers structure and calls to action.