Before you publish your next piece of content on social media, ask yourself these four questions:
#1—How can I get their attention?
Before you publish any piece of short-form content in 2025, the first question you should ask yourself is, “How the hell am I going to get someone to STOP the scroll?” You can do this in four ways:
- A visual hook
- A text-based hook
- A verbal hook
- A hook in the caption
This is an example of a video that has all three from Jared James:
#2—How do I get someone to watch or read this entire thing?
The next thing you should think about is retention. How can you keep someone on your post until the end?
You accomplish this with quick transitions, setting changes, text throughout the video, and a strong payoff at the end. If you are doing a carousel post, you hook someone in and then let them know to swipe so they hit all your slides as the information builds.
This is an example of a carousel post that keeps you going until the last slide:
#3—What does this do for the person on the other end of the video?
What does the consumer think about your post? Is it valuable to them? Is it making them laugh? Is it entertaining? Are they getting new information out of it? Most importantly, WOULD YOU enjoy this content?
I always try to imagine myself on the other end of the post to see what I would do. Would I comment on this? Would I learn from it?
Here’s an example from Neel Dhingra. Straight value:
#4—Will it get SHARES?
According to Meta, a share is the most important metric to look at to determine how well a post will do.
So, ask yourself: will someone share this? This doesn’t necessarily mean in their story—it means in the DMs. Is this information good enough that someone will stop on the post, and DM it to their friend or partner?
If you ask yourself these four questions, you will see a lot more engagement in 2025.
By the way…on February 5th, we are hosting the BAM Pro Bowl, a must-attend, free virtual event with an amazing speaker lineup. Space is limited, so make sure you reserve your post now!
This Simple Instagram Post Generated 97 Comments (and a Month of Content Ideas)