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The Science Behind Viral Thread Hooks
The 1% Newsletter Edition 8 🚀
Welcome to the 8th edition of The 1% Newsletter.
This week we’ve crossed 1800 subscribers and are joined by 317 new readers.
It’s my pleasure to welcome each and every one of you to The 1% Club.
Today we’ll be completing our three-part series:
The science behind viral thread hooks
In case you missed the previous edition, you can check it out by clicking the links above.
Bonus: there’s a special gift awaiting you at the end of this newsletter.
Let’s get started.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes.
The Science Behind Viral Thread Hooks
Twitter is a game of home runs.
If you want to hit home runs, you must write threads.
To improve your odds of striking a home run, you must learn the science behind viral thread hooks.
There are two reasons behind this:
1. Threads are the best way to build your audience
Most of your growth on Twitter comes down to your ability to craft a compelling thread.
However, a good thread is one of the most challenging pieces of content to create.
But stick around to the end of this newsletter and I’m confident you will learn how to use threads to your advantage.
2. 80% of your readers will only read the first tweet
There’s no harm spending hours, days or even weeks writing the "perfect" thread.
But if your hook doesn’t capture attention, it won’t get traction.
And if it doesn’t get traction, no one’s going to read it.
So keep this in mind:
Bad thread with a great hook > Great thread with a bad hook
Now let’s dive into the science behind viral thread hooks.
The 3C Framework
Let’s start with the basics.
Your thread hook should follow the 3Cs:
Clear
Concise
Compelling
Clear → Think of the hook as bait. It’s your tool to attract as many readers as possible. Stand clear of complicated jargon, cliches and keep your language as simple as possible. Stick to basic terms to convey the core idea behind your thread.
Concise → It’s no secret that Twitter rewards brevity. While the 280 character limit is mandatory, challenge yourself to write your hooks in under 140 characters. Choose your words with ruthless precision.
Compelling → There’s a sweet spot between writing about what you want, and what your reader wants. Get an understanding of your audience’s pain points and reference them in the hook. If your reader feels heard, they will read your thread.
5 Keys To a Viral Thread Hook
Let’s dive in deeper.
There are tons of different thread hooks you can come up with.
Regardless of your choice, there are five principles you can apply to make your thread stand out.
1. Pattern interrupts
One of the best ways to stop the scroll is to add a pattern interrupt:
Images
Statistics
Numbers
Threads that include pattern interrupts are always more likely to perform better than the ones without.
A growing Twitter audience is an asset to any entrepreneur.
I've added 120,476 followers in just 8 months.
Here are the 7 dead-simple things I did:
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh)
12:14 PM • Jul 5, 2022
2. Call out the target audience
A reference to your reader is a great way to show your authority.
Let’s say you’re writing a thread about the principles of focus.
You could ask a question or write a short declarative statement like:
Struggling to stay focused?
Most people struggle to stay focused
Focus is the most important skill you can learn
This is also a great way to target the pain points of your audience.
Struggling to stay focused?
Problem is that you’ve never been taught how it’s done.
Give me 3 minutes and ill show you how to stay laser focused:
— Dr Pranav 🚀 (@The1stReporter)
2:43 PM • Oct 19, 2022
3. Big and bold promise
The relationship between the reader and writer is a two-way street.
Your reader is far more likely to commit to reading your thread if you can preview the direct benefit or effort involved.
Before you hit publish, put yourself in your readers’ shoes and ask yourself:
What’s in it for me?
23 sentences that'll improve your writing more than 12 years of English class:
— Dakota Robertson (@WrongsToWrite)
2:37 PM • Mar 28, 2022
4. Open Loops
You can use loops to take your reader from one end of your story to another.
They break the typical, and monotonous pattern of threads.
Think of them as a way instil a sense of curiosity and keep your reader guessing.
If you’ve opened a loop successfully, your reader has no choice but to read the rest of your thread to close it.
10 years ago, I broke my neck.
Then doctors found a tumour at the base of my skull.
And my spine bent by 56 degrees.
It was the best thing that ever happened.
Here are 10 life-changing lessons I’ve learned:
— Kieran Drew (@ItsKieranDrew)
4:57 PM • Aug 18, 2021
5. The Central Emotion
To captivate your reader, it’s crucial you get an idea of what you want them to FEEL.
Shan Puri did an excellent breakdown on the 8 emotions he targets when writing threads on the Ship 30 YouTube channel:
Oh, now I get it
NSFW that’s crazy
Lol that’s so funny
Aww, that’s so cute
Wow, that’s amazing
Yay that’s great news
Wtf that pisses me off
Finally, someone gets it
Keep these at the top of your page and focus on one of these emotions to guide you.
Thread Skeleton
It doesn’t matter whether you’re writing a 50 tweet case-study or a short listicle thread.
Each one of your threads needs structure.
To make your thread writing process seamless, let me introduce you to the thread skeleton:
The Hook: The thread opener
The Lead: Introduce and agitate the problem [optional]
The Body: The core message you want to deliver
The CTA: Direct the traffic where you want it to go [newsletter, website, product]
The Summary: One to two tweet summary of the thread
Ultra simple and extremely efficient.
How To 10x Your Threads Reach
You’ve now got an idea of how to structure your threads and craft a compelling hook.
But there’s another vital factor to keep in mind:
Distribution.
Once you hit publish, you need to make sure your thread reaches the right kind and the right quantity of people.
There are two easy ways to implement this:
1. Remind your audience to share the thread
If your reader made it to the end of your thread, chances are that they enjoyed reading it.
So be sure to add a gentle reminder to share the thread and link your first tweet.
2. Ask your friends to share the thread
Let’s say we have creator A and creator B.
They’ve both published a thread on how to focus.
Creator A shared it with a group of his or her friends who also write about focus and productivity.
But creator B doesn’t share it with any of his or her friends and leaves the thread at the mercy of the algorithm.
Which one do you think would perform better?
The answer is clear.
Share your threads with other creators and members of your audience who you’ve interacted with before and are interested in similar topics.
It’s a great way to build, connect and grow together.
Alright, we’ve now reached the end of our three-part newsletter series.
I want to thank all 1839 readers of The 1% Newsletter for reading todays edition.
As always I would love to hear your thoughts on todays edition.
If you have a topic in mind that you would like me to write about in the upcoming editions, don't hesitate to reply to this email and let me know. Your feedback is always appreciated.
I hope you have a fantastic day ahead.
The1stReporter
Dr Pranav