When you share a post on Facebook, you have the option to share it publicly with all of your friends or limit visibility to specific people. Facebook’s customized sharing allows you to target your post to select friends, friend lists, or other groups you’ve created. This gives you more control over who sees your content.
Sharing a post with specific friends on Facebook is easy to do, but it does have some implications users should be aware of. In this article, we’ll cover what exactly happens when you limit post visibility using Facebook’s customized sharing options.
How to Share a Post With Specific Friends
Sharing a post with only certain friends on Facebook simply requires selecting the “Custom” privacy option rather than “Public.” Here are the steps:
- When writing a new post, click the audience selector underneath where you enter text.
- Choose “Custom” instead of “Public.”
- Start typing the names of the friends you want to share with and select them from the drop down list.
- You can also use friend lists you’ve already created or other groups.
- Once you’ve selected all the friends to share with, click “Done.”
- Finish writing your post and click “Post.”
The post will now only be visible to the friends you selected. Anyone not included will not see it.
Who Can See the Post
When you share to specific friends, only those individuals will have access to that post. It will not appear in any other friends’ News Feeds nor will it be visible on your timeline to the public.
Essentially, the post is private between you and the friends selected. No one else will even know the post exists.
So you can comfortably share posts intended just for certain eyes without worrying others will stumble upon it. This is great for inside jokes, planning surprise parties, sending special messages, and more.
Tagged Friends Can Still See the Post
One important note is that even if you exclude friends from the audience, anyone tagged directly in the post can still see it. Facebook alerts users when they’ve been tagged somewhere.
So if you write “Happy Birthday @Jane!” and tag your friend Jane but exclude her from the audience, she’ll still get notified of the post and be able to view it through the tag notification.
Be mindful of tagging if you really want to limit who reads the post. To keep it completely private from someone, leave them untagged.
Sharing a Post With Specific Friends Limits Engagement
When you post to just certain friends rather than publicly, it also limits the potential engagement on that post.
For example, only the friends you share with can react to the post, comment on it, or reshare it. Anyone outside the intended audience won’t see it at all.
This means your post won’t spread as far or get as much engagement as a public post open to all friends. But sometimes you may prefer less engagement anyway for privacy.
The Post Won’t Appear on Your Timeline
Another effect of sharing a custom post is that it won’t be visible anywhere on your own timeline. Only the people you share it with can see it.
Your wider friend list won’t know that post exists, even when visiting your profile. It remains unseen by anyone except the targeted audience.
So don’t expect customized posts to show up on your timeline like normal public ones do. The limited audience means they stay separate from your main sharing activity.
How Long Custom Posts Are Visible
Posts shared with specific friends through customized sharing will remain visible to that audience indefinitely, just like regular posts. There is no time limit on how long the posts are accessible.
You always have the option to go back and delete a custom post or change its privacy settings if you want. But otherwise, it will continue to be available to the friends you originally shared it with.
The Post Won’t Appear in Friends’ News Feeds
Another key difference between customized sharing and public posts is that friends excluded from the audience won’t see the post in their News Feeds at all.
Facebook’s algorithmically generated News Feed shows a customized mix of updates from friends, pages, and groups. Public posts you make typically have a chance of appearing in your wider friend list’s feeds.
But when you limit the audience, those not selected won’t get the post in their feed. That helps maintain the privacy of the sharing.
How Custom Post Visibility Works for Pages
The visibility of custom posts works a bit differently when sharing from a Facebook Page rather than a personal profile.
When posting from a Page, customized posts will still only be visible to the selected target audience. However, they will also appear on the Page’s own timeline like normal.
So fans who visit the Page can see the post, but it won’t broadcast to a wider audience through feeds. This allows Pages to publicly archive customized activity while still limiting sharing.
Consequences to Social Interactions
While sharing to specific friends allows more privacy, it may negatively impact your social interactions on Facebook in some cases.
Friends excluded from seeing certain posts won’t be able to participate in conversations on those posts. Over time, this could make some feel left out.
Repeated customized sharing could damage relationships with friends who realize they are being selectively excluded from posts.
Occasional targeted sharing likely won’t cause issues. But if you frequently leave the same people out of the audience for your posts, it could breed resentment or distrust.
Potential Issues With Algorithmic Timelines
Facebook’s algorithm factors in different signals to decide what content appears in users’ feeds and at the top of feeds. Two of the main signals are how often users interact with your posts and how often you interact with other users.
If you frequently share posts that exclude large chunks of your friend list, it may reduce the amount of interactions those friends have with your profile. In turn, Facebook’s algorithm may start showing your profile updates lower in feeds or stop showing them at all.
So extensive use of customized sharing could potentially impact your overall reach and engagement on Facebook. The more you leave people out, the less visibility you may get.
Positives of Sharing With Specific Friends
While there are some downsides, customized sharing also has many advantages:
- More privacy and control over who sees your content
- Ability to create special moments just for select people
- Share inside jokes that only certain friends would understand
- Prevent upsetting or offending wider audiences
- Plan surprises without spoiling them for others
- Send direct messages to multiple people at once
- Feel comfortable sharing posts you wouldn’t want public
For the right situations, limiting your audience can be beneficial. The negatives need to be weighed against your specific reasons for wanting to customize post visibility.
Conclusion
Customized sharing allows targeting your Facebook posts to specific groups of friends rather than the public. While this limits the potential reach and engagement, it also increases privacy.
Posts shared with a limited audience will only be visible to those selected friends and won’t appear elsewhere. However, anyone tagged in the post will still see it.
Using custom sharing consistently for certain friends could damage social interactions and feed reach. But occasional selective sharing has many benefits like privacy and controlling content.
Understanding exactly how Facebook’s customized sharing works allows you to use it most effectively for your needs. With the right audience selections, it provides the privacy of messaging with the power of posting.