Facebook allows you to customize the audience for your posts and restrict who can see what you share. Here are some tips on how to change who views your Facebook posts.
Adjusting Privacy Settings
The easiest way to control who sees your posts is to adjust your overall privacy settings. This allows you to set a default audience for the things you post without having to customize each post.
To edit your privacy settings on Facebook:
- Click on the arrow in the top right corner and select “Settings”
- On the left sidebar, click “Privacy”
- Under the “Your Activity” section, click “Activity Privacy”
- Here you can set your preferred privacy level for future posts by adjusting the audience toggle. For example, you can set it so only friends see your posts by default.
Once you save your privacy settings, any posts you share in the future will abide by those rules. You can still customize individual posts when needed, but this sets the default visibility.
Customizing Individual Posts
If you want to create a one-off post with unique privacy rules, you can customize the audience when creating the post:
- When writing a new post, click the audience selector underneath where it says “Share with:”
- Choose from options like Public, Friends, Only Me, and Custom to narrow or expand who can view the post.
- If you select Custom, you can specifically exclude or include people as desired.
- Once you’ve adjusted the audience, click “Post” to share it with that custom visibility.
Using the customization when posting gives you more granular control for each individual piece of content. You can share family photos just with relatives, work news with colleagues, etc. without having to change your default settings.
Restricting Past Posts
You can also limit the visibility of posts you’ve already shared. Here’s how to restrict access to previous posts:
- Go to your profile and click on “Posts” in the left sidebar
- Hover over the post you want to adjust and click on the three dots that appear
- Select “Edit audience” or “Edit privacy”
- Choose who you want to be able to view the post moving forward
- Click “Confirm” to save the new privacy setting
People who could previously see the post may still have access to it if they already engaged with it. But this will prevent others from seeing it in the future.
Unfriending or Unfollowing
In some cases, you may want to outright unfriend or unfollow someone so they can’t view your posts at all moving forward. Here’s how to do that:
Unfriend
- Go to the profile of the person you want to unfriend
- Hover over “Friends” below their cover photo
- Click “Unfriend” to remove them from your friends list
This completely blocks them from your profile and prevents them seeing anything you post.
Unfollow
- Go to the profile of the person you want to unfollow
- Hover over “Following” below their cover photo
- Click “Unfollow” to stop seeing their posts
You’ll remain Facebook friends, but their posts will no longer show up in your News Feed. They can still visit your profile though.
Using List Groups
Facebook Lists allow you to group friends into custom audiences. You can then share posts and stories with a specific list:
- Go to your profile and click “Friends” in the left sidebar
- At the top, click “Lists” then “+ Create List”
- Give your list a name (like “Close Friends”) and add members
- When making a new post, choose that list name under the audience selector
This lets you easily share certain posts with just those friends on your list. You can make lists for family, coworkers, teammates, etc.
Blocking Specific People
If you want to completely block an individual from interacting with you on Facebook, you can block them:
- Go to their profile and click on the three dots near their cover photo
- Select “Block” to block them from seeing your profile or posts
This is more extreme than unfriending. They won’t even be able to search for or view your profile after being blocked.
Facebook Timeline Review
It’s easy to forget about posts you made years or months ago. Use the timeline review tool to manage old posts:
- Go to your profile and click on “Posts” in the left menu
- In the left menu click “Timeline review” then “Review”**
- This shows you past posts other people can see. Click the arrows to review.
- If you find a post you want to adjust, click the three dots and edit the audience.
Periodically scanning your timeline and making changes helps ensure your older posts have your desired visibility.
Conclusion
Controlling your Facebook privacy settings, customizing individual posts, using lists and blocking gives you granular control over who sees your content. Take advantage of the options to share comfortably.