Myths we can finally kill
Shadowbans, post times, hashtag stuffing, deleting flops — what's real, what's superstition.
The honest list
MYTH: Posting at 6pm gets more views. REALITY: Your audience's active window matters, not a global time.
MYTH: Deleting flops hurts your account. REALITY: Neutral. But re-posting with a new hook often wins.
MYTH: 3-5 hashtags is the sweet spot. REALITY: Hashtags barely move the needle. Caption keywords do.
Examples in the wild
A creator who switched from #fyp #foryou #viral to a 20-word keyword-rich caption saw search impressions 8x in 30 days.
Accounts that deleted every flop saw no measurable difference in next-video reach vs. a control group that left them up.
Posting at '3am EST for global reach' tested against personal active-hours posting: active-hours won every time across 12 accounts.
Key takeaways
- →Stop optimizing for myths. Start optimizing for AWT.