Finally figured out Instagram's hook retention trick after 6 months

I used to just post random photos of my pottery with generic captions and wondered why nobody saw them. Then I started paying attention to the first 3 seconds of a Reel, specifically adding a visual hook like a spinning wheel before the actual piece. Engagement jumped from maybe 20 views to over 400 on my last glazing video. Has anyone else seen this work better for craft projects than just posting a finished piece?

3 comments

3 Comments

wood.uma12d ago

Put a spinning wheel in the first frame of your last video or was it something like a question over a still shot? I'm curious if the hook has to show the process starting or if it can be just a really weird angle of the clay before you even touch it. I've been trying to figure out what makes people stop scrolling for handbuilding stuff since throwing is harder to hook with. Did you play with the timing at all, like a 1 second hold on the hook before cutting to the glaze reveal

rodriguez.mia12d ago

oh man, 400 views from 20 is actually wild, I'm so happy for you. that spinning wheel trick is genius honestly, and @alice928 you're so right about it working like those sidewalk sign spinners, I never thought of it that way but it makes total sense. for handbuilding I've been doing this thing where I hold the clay at a weird angle for the first second before showing the full piece, and it's been getting way more saves than just showing the finished pot. the weirdness really does make people curious enough to hang around for the reveal

alice92812d ago

Have you noticed how this same rule applies to almost everything people flip past in real life too? Like when you're scrolling TikTok or even flipping through a magazine, if the first thing you see isn't grabbing you, your brain just checks out. I bet the spinning wheel trick works because it signals movement and progress right away, kind of like how a sign spinning on a sidewalk gets you to look at the store front. For handbuilding stuff, a really weird angle on the clay might work better than showing the start of the process, since the weirdness itself makes people curious enough to stick around for the reveal.