Content creation is a brutal battlefield. You’re given very little opportunity to prove that your piece of content is worth stopping and reading. Especially, on social media when the next piece of content is only a scroll away. 

Essentially, you have your first line to impress your intended audience enough to hit ‘read more’ and consume every crafted word of what you’ve written. This is what you hope they’ll do considering the time, energy and heart you put into your content creation. 

So you’ve got to get the first line right. As a Creative Writing graduate, copywriter of business content and content writing membership host, here are my top tips for making the first line of your social media post engaging. 

4 ways to increase the impact of your first line

Make it relatable 

We only tend to bother to read content that appears relevant to us in some way or form. It solves a problem we have, offers a solution we’re looking for, mentions a topic we’re interested in or begins a story we want to find out the conclusion to. So position your first line as something your ideal client can identify with. They know straight away it’s for them. Think about the language they would use and things they’d be interested in reading about - and why. Content marketing isn’t about discussing topics as you understand them but as your ideal client wants to approach them. 

Make it intriguing 

There are a lot of people saying a lot of things on social media. They may have already scrolled past 10 different posts about your area of expertise already. So you need more than just a topic they can relate to. What is finding out about that bit of information you’re sharing going to do for them? Will it surprise them? Will it enlighten them? Will it bring a sense of relief? What’s the outcome that makes it worth reading the post? Hint to that in the first line to create intrigue. The more specific you make it the better so don’t be afraid to include ideal client descriptors. 

Make it succinct 

When I say first line, I mean first line. You need to encapsulate your message within a sentence (or two punchy ones). First, to meet the short attention spans of social media scrollers. Second, to meet the formatting requirements of social media platforms. On platforms like Instagram you get very little room before the ‘read more’ button appears so make the most of it by forming a complete thought within that space. You don’t want to be cut off before you get to the good part, leaving your audience questioning whether or not they want to stop to read your post. 

Make it you

Where possible, add a bit of personality. Dry content doesn’t work for anyone. Add puns. Add humour. Add exaggeration. Speak about some of your personal experiences. Adding your personality brings a post to life and makes it distinct from all the other stuff they’re scrolling through. It can work really well to soften a technically heavy post because personality-driven wording is usually more conversational and therefore easier to read. Wouldn’t it be cool if your brand voice was so strong, your audience could identify your content without seeing your name beside it?

So, those are some things to think about when selling your wares on social. By that, I mean trying to get people to read enough of your content to understand how you can help them. If getting engagement has been a real bugbear of yours, it might be worth checking out my free quiz that, through your answers, will formulate what you should post to end your low engagement streak. An outside perspective can be really helpful in these situations. Knowing how to attract the right kind of attention is a game changer.