The Visual Hook Strategy

Max: This video got 5.4 million views on my Instagram because I used four psychological triggers that brainwashed people into watching and sharing. So let me break it down for you so you can replicate that for your own IG reels, TikToks, or YouTube shorts.

Woman: What’s one thing that poor people do and wealthy people stay away from?

Max: So the first thing you’ll probably notice here is a so-called visual hook. It’s a pretty girl that asks me a question, which undoubtedly is going to be nicer for people to look at than this ugly face here. Now visual hooks can be not only pretty girls – it could be you holding something into the camera like this here, for example, or just you moving in an interesting manner like this here, for example.

The Power of Provocative Questions

Max: The second thing that really helps in the first 3 seconds of this video is the girl actually asking me a very provocative question: “What’s one thing that poor people do and wealthy people stay away from?” What does that do psychologically to people? They will say, “Well, I want to know what’s the one thing that poor people do because I want to make sure that either I’m not doing it, or I am doing it so I need to change.”

If, for example, she would have asked me something like “What is a great way to make more money?” – that’s not as spicy of a question, so to speak. So whenever you’re creating a piece of content that is educational in nature, try to frame the first 3 seconds either in a provocative way or in a way where you’re enticing the person to be curious to actually watch your answer.

The Art of Storytelling

Max: Now I’m doing something very similar with what I’m saying next, so have a look. My first mentor once said buying luxury goods with the money from your hard-earned labor is what we call a dumb man’s move.

So instead of me giving a straight-up answer saying, “Well, you should build assets because it’s good,” I’m actually using the tool of storytelling to make it more interesting. For us humans, we humans evolved with, you know, sitting around a campfire telling stories. That is how we used to learn for tens of thousands of years. Our brains still think like that. So therefore I said something like, “Well, one of my mentors once said,” and so on and so forth.

This storytelling works so well because one of my mentors once said the best marketing in the world is insanely interesting things pieced together one after the other, and that makes it easier for a viewer to relate and remember. So whenever you want to give advice, see if you either know an interesting piece of trivia for that, or a historic example of someone that everybody knows, or perhaps you can even have studies or numbers to back up what you’re saying to make it psychologically more interesting.

Shareability Through Relatability

Max: Now that explains why people watch my video, but how the hell did I get over 1,200 people to share it? Well, it’s a very simple concept called sharability through relatability. What entices us humans to relate to something? Well, a very strong emotion. In fact, there’s a great book about that – “Contagious” by Jonah Berger – who talks a lot about emotions making people take action on certain pieces of content.

Well, that basically means is when I say, “Hey, there’s this thing poor people do and it’s XYZ,” and a lot of people identify with that, they will feel the emotion of superiority. So they’re going to say, “Wow, thank God I don’t do that. Look at me, I’m still superior to everyone else. You know what? Let me share this on my stories so everybody knows how much more superior I am.” So by them sharing, they will feel the emotion of increasing their social status. We’re literally, quote-unquote, brainwashing people to share my stuff.

Conversely, if they disagree with something, they can share my content or comment on it and say, “This is not true, everybody. This is BS.” And again, they experience the emotion of rising in social status because they are the ones criticizing someone else.

The Content Creation Formula

Max: So whenever you’re creating content, think about the concept of sharability. Will people feel a strong positive or negative emotion to that? AKA, want to share that? Will they relate to it? AKA, do they want to share that? Think about these concepts whenever you’re creating content.

If you want me to do more of these breakdowns, give a thumbs up. Thanks for watching.