Engagement pods, where groups agree to like each other's posts, ultimately harm your account. The algorithm recognizes the inorganic pattern of the same people engaging at the same time and weighs that engagement less heavily. This results in your posts being shown to fewer people, leaving you worse off.

When creators increase their posting volume, they typically see a discouraging drop in engagement for the first 30-60 days. However, according to a Buffer study, pushing through this initial dip leads to a higher average engagement rate over time. Short-term pain leads to long-term gain.

Posting content just for the sake of it is counterproductive. Low-quality, non-engaging content actively harms your reach by signaling to social media algorithms that users are not interested in your brand. This suppresses visibility for all future posts. It's better to post less frequently with higher quality.

Deleting an app like Instagram for many months causes its algorithm to lose understanding of your interests. Upon returning, the feed is generic and unengaging, creating a natural friction that discourages re-addiction. A short, week-long break, however, triggers aggressive re-engagement tactics from the platform.

Experienced marketers confirm they delete underperforming social media posts, sometimes weekly. They assert this action is not detrimental to platform algorithms, encouraging content creators not to fear removing posts that fail to resonate with their audience.

Instagram's head, Adam Mosseri, confirmed it's a myth that sharing your own post to your story increases its circulation. While it can garner more views from existing followers who watch stories, it does not signal the algorithm to push the content to a wider, non-follower audience or help it go viral.

Instagram doesn't penalize link stickers directly; viewer behavior does. Users uninterested in the link quickly tap to the next story, signaling to the algorithm that the content is not engaging. This wave of 'skip' signals from non-clickers outweighs the clicks, leading to suppressed reach for the story.

Contrary to popular belief, Instagram's algorithm does not reward accounts for direct engagement activities like replying to comments or DMs. While these actions foster community goodwill, they are not a factor in content reach. For time-strapped creators, posting new content provides a far greater growth ROI.

Marketers shouldn't hesitate to delete social media posts that fail to gain traction. This practice is common and not penalized by algorithms. Reposting similar content immediately, however, may have negative effects, suggesting a need for caution with that specific follow-up action.