Twitter Writing Tips by Erica Schneider

Hook
The hook
Strong hook frameworks and examples
The body
Examples of strong threads
Additional writing tips

Hook

The hook
A good hook needs to captivate and intrigue the audience.

People want to know:

• Why they should bother reading

• How it will help them solve a problem

• What they will learn

If you don't answer these questions, they won't care or feel motivated to open and read.

A great way to capture attention is to poke at a pain point, add credibility via quantifiable proof, get
specific with outcomes, and leave a cliffhanger.

• Poking at the pain lights up emotions and gives readers something to relate to, e.g. “Most
people get this wrong” or “I was struggling and wish I had a playbook to follow”.
• Adding credibility acts as social proof and gives people a reason to care or trust what you’re
saying, e.g. “I’ve edited 3M+ words” or “We’ve spent 7 years building systems that have netted
$X revenue”.
• Getting specific with outcomes is a tactic we use across all content marketing mediums and
formats. It gives readers a specific idea of what they can accomplish themselves by reading, e.g.
“ensure your new employee stays at your organization” or “3x conversions in [timeframe]”.
• Leaving a cliffhanger encourages people to click to find out what’s next. This is especially key if
your setup is a listicle, for example, if the crux is “8 ways to X”, don’t include what those are in the
hook—make the reader click more to see more.

Strong hook frameworks and examples

Here are a few templates you can use as a framework. Like all frameworks, these should serve as a
jumping off point, not a box. Expand, rework, and get creative as needed.

1. I've [quantifiable proof]. But [pain point]. How to [outcome]:

E.g.

2. [State of play]. But [pain point]. Why (and what to do instead):

3. [Opinion]. Stance on [bad take]. I’ve spent [social proof + timeframe] to achieve [outcome]. The
playbook:
4. [X] is hard. [Data + proof]. Do [Y] to get [outcome]:

5. Everybody [pain point]. I used to [pain point], too. Here’s what I’ve done to [overcome and get new
outcome]:
6. [Specific difficult situation]. [Desire]. What I did to overcome [pain point] and achieve [outcome]:

7. I’ve spent [social proof] learning about [concept]. [Details.] Here are my [X learnings] to help you
[outcome]:
For more, read Erica’s thread.

Avoid making false promises or overt claims, like this:

❌“It should be illegal”

❌“Teach you more than a college degree”
❌“Teach you more 2 minutes than you learned in X years”
❌“Outperform 99% of people”
❌“Make you millions”

The body
A good body delivers on the promise in the hook. We have to make sure the juice is worth the squeeze.

To do that:
• Share unique insights

• Add the "why" and "how"

• Get creative

• Pay attention to structure

General content marketing tips apply to thread writing. The best threads set context, add examples,
include prescriptive tips, tell a great story, give the reader instructions on how to do something
themselves, and leave them with an action item.

Where threads differ is in their structure. You have limited space to work with on Twitter and people skim
heavily, so your writing needs to be more concise than a blog post or even a LinkedIn post.
You want readers to:
 • Easily understand your points

• Experience zero friction

• Stay interested throughout

On Twitter, white space is critical—especially when using a listicle format that has dedicated headers.
You can write slightly longer form in thought leadership and storytelling content, but you still need to
infuse white space there, too.

Generally, this format works best:

• Header: Set the stage

• Subheader: Answer “the why”

• Body: Supplement your argument and answer “how”

• Takeaway: Empower them to follow your advice and give them a reason why it will help
them help themselves.

Here’s a meta example of how you could use this format to explain why this advice will help people
write stronger Tweets:
• Header: “Answer intent right away”

• Subheader: “This way, the reader understands why what they're about to read matters.”

• Body: “Include data points or personal anecdotes so they can picture themselves doing what
you’re describing.”
• Takeaway: “Small tweaks like this make a big impact on flow and drive engagement.”

And here’s a simplified version of how we could format a tweet when giving the advice “break up long
walls of text”:
• Header: “Break up long walls of text”

• Subheader: “White space helps skimmers and makes content easier to digest & navigate.”

• Body: “Try to limit paragraphs to 2-3 sentences max.”

• Takeaway: “The reading experience matters as much as the words on the page.”

The topic and content will drive the format, and sometimes, it will not align with the box outlined above.
For example, there may not be a need for a takeaway because a transition is better suited, or ideas
might overflow from one tweet to the next and format gets thrown out of the window.
Use your best judgment.
Examples of strong threads
• https://twitter.com/ericasmyname/status/1528723310300651520

• https://twitter.com/ericasmyname/status/1564583766948859904

• https://twitter.com/ericasmyname/status/1559857591903084544

• https://twitter.com/tomwhtley/status/1554090892624965632

• https://twitter.com/getgrizzle/status/1554121287173173248

• https://twitter.com/amandanat/status/1551951984457965568

• https://twitter.com/KateBour/status/1478792178726019073

• https://twitter.com/thatroblennon/status/1563554606386294784

• https://twitter.com/jmoserr/status/1395025640022237186

• https://twitter.com/jalehr/status/1564613975337103365

Additional writing tips

✅ Use writing tools if you want to. Grammarly is a great tool to check for basic errors. Hemingway
Editor is also great for sense checking readability.

✅ Use active voice over passive voice. Active voice speaks directly to a known audience & incites
action. Passive voice implies something could happen to the reader. We want readers to feel like they
can take charge and make a thing happen for themselves. It's also easier to read and skim.

✅ Say what you mean. Be literal when making points.

❌ "You won't have to worry about redundancies."
💯 "You won't have to worry about skills that are no longer useful."
"Redundancies" is vague. Don’t make the reader guess what you mean.

✅ Avoid generalizations. Don't make the reader think "why?" or "what does that mean?"
❌ "Don't waste time on unqualified leads. To find warm leads..."
💯 "Unqualified leads bloat your pipeline, waste resources, and lead to missed opportunities. To find
warm leads..."

✅ Trim fat and filler. Fluff is a waste of valuable real estate + hurts readability.
❌ “To start making a plan, sit down and ask yourself the following questions:”
💯 “To formulate a plan, ask yourself:”
Aim for clear, concise & snappy.

✅ Avoid redundancy. It makes content repetitive and boring and is hard to skim. Every single sentence
needs to be unique and add value. If it doesn't, self-edit or remove. For tips on how to avoid
redundancy, read this guide: https://www.grizzle.io/blog/advanced-content-marketing-principles

✅ Add value. Don't aim to produce social content that’s interchangeable with the rest of what’s out there.
Stand out. The best way to do that is to aim to write something more valuable than anybody else.