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How To Reach 100K Followers On LinkedIn in 1 Year
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"If you haven't received a CEASE & DESIST letter… are you even building a real company? Starbucks sent us one in 2008 and it nearly ended ZoomInfo."
I read that hook and immediately clicked "see more."
I couldn't help it… it was just too juicy. I needed to know what happened and how it nearly ended this company.
This is called a curiosity gap and it is one of the most powerful ways to get people to read your content.
But what actually is it?
A curiosity gap is when your hook leaves the reader with unanswered questions that they can only answer by clicking see more.
In Henry's post, I could only learn what happened to ZoomInfo by clicking see more.
Examples in practice
Here are two examples where I’ve done the same thing:
“I made $120,000 by taking 2 days off. And I almost didn’t do it…” (125k views) - the hook makes the reader think:
“How did he make that much money by taking time off??” and "How can I do it too?"
“I procrastinated for 8 years on the 2nd most important decision of my life” (72k views) - this hook with this picture from my wedding makes you think:
“Is he really calling his wedding the 2nd most important decision of his life? What was the most important decision?”
In both cases, you have to click “see more” to get the answer.
Where this usually goes wrong.
There are three ways people usually mess this up:
Lack of clarity - the reader needs to immediately understand what they're getting by clicking. Vague or confusing hooks are a big no no.
Low stakes. If I'd written "I made $100 by taking 2 days off," nobody would have clicked. The stakes wouldn’t have been high enough.
Not delivering on your promise. If someone clicks "see more" and the post doesn't answer the question your hook raised, they feel cheated. They won't click next time.
How to do this yourself
You don't need a dramatic life event or a big career announcement to pull this off. You just need one unanswered question that your target audience would want to know.
With something like: "I spoke to 200 sales leaders and the best ones did 3 things differently", your reader is already asking "what are the 3 things?"
Here's how to build one:
Write your post first. Don't think about the hook yet, just get your idea down. The hook is much easier to write once you know what your best point actually is.
Find the most surprising or counterintuitive thing in it. Ask yourself: what's the one point in this post that would make my reader say "wait, really?"
If you're stuck, look for the result, a big number, or anything weird.
Rewrite your first line so it hints at that thing without giving it away. A simple way to do this: state the outcome but leave out the explanation. The explanation is what they click "See more" to find.
Then show your hook to someone else and ask: would this make you click “see more”?
If the answer is no, the gap isn't there yet.
See you next week,
Will
P.S.
A new format you can try this week: The Three Circle (1,507 likes). Apply it to any topic.
Here’s my playbook reach 100k followers on LinkedIn in 1 year. Watch it here.
Will McTighe
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P.P.S. Building a personal brand was the highest leverage thing I’ve done in my career. Whenever you’re ready, there are three ways I can help you:
Enterprise LinkedIn Systems – I work with enterprise clients ($10M+ in revenue or Series A+) on building and running your entire LinkedIn content-led GTM system. If this is you, apply here.
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