<b>My hook was fine. My second line murdered it.</b>

<b>My hook was fine. My second line murdered it.</b>

And then I learned that the hook isn't one line — it's two. My opener "I lost 40,000 followers overnight" was a banger, holding 74% at three seconds. But the graph fell off a cliff at second seven, down to 44%.

Here's the thing — line two was "So let me back up and explain my account history." Dead air. I'd hooked them, then made them wait through my bio.

I swapped line two to keep pulling: "And the reason will make you check your own settings right now." Same story.

The result: the seven-second hold went 44% to 69%, average view duration up 31%.

The lesson: most hooks don't die at line one — they die at line two. Write the catch <i>and</i> the next pull together.