Social Media Marketing: Foundations to Practice · How Social Media Algorithms Actually Work
Common Algorithm Myths
Algorithm folklore spreads faster than actual platform documentation. This chapter debunks the myths most likely to waste a marketer's time and budget.
There is no single best time to post that applies universally; the actual advantage comes from posting when a specific account's specific audience is most active, which varies by account and should be checked through that account's own analytics rather than applied from a generic, one-size-fits-all schedule found in a blog post. Posting at a generically popular time for an audience that is not actually active then provides no meaningful early-engagement advantage.
Key Takeaways
- There is no universal best posting time; the real advantage comes from an account's own audience activity data, not a generic schedule.
- Hashtag volume carries less ranking weight than it once did, as platforms increasingly classify topics from content itself.
- Deleting and reposting underperforming content doesn't reset algorithmic prospects, since the underlying relevance signals are unchanged.
- Cross-posting identical, visibly non-native content (like watermarks from another platform) triggers distribution penalties rather than neutral treatment.