Facebook is a great way to stay connected with friends and family, but sometimes you may want to limit who can see your posts. Whether you want to hide posts from certain people or show them to only a select group, Facebook offers a variety of privacy settings to help you control who sees your content.
In this article, we’ll explore how to show or hide Facebook posts for certain people and how to adjust your privacy settings to ensure your posts are seen by the right audience.
Why Adjust Your Facebook Privacy Settings?
Facebook is a public platform, and by default, your posts are visible to anyone who has access to your profile. However, there may be times when you want to limit who can see your posts. Here are a few reasons why you may want to adjust your Facebook privacy settings:
Protect Your Personal Information
by Penghao Xiong (https://unsplash.com/@felixxiong)
By limiting who can see your posts, you can protect your personal information from strangers or people you don’t know well. This is especially important if you have a public profile or if you frequently post personal information.
Control Who Sees Your Posts
You may want to limit who can see your posts to a select group of friends or family members. This can be helpful if you want to share something with a specific group without making it public.
Avoid Uncomfortable Interactions
If you have a large network of friends on Facebook, you may not want everyone to see your posts. By adjusting your privacy settings, you can avoid uncomfortable interactions with people you don’t know well or don’t want to share certain information with.
How to Show or Hide Facebook Posts for Certain People
Facebook offers several options for controlling who can see your posts. Here’s how to show or hide Facebook posts for certain people:
1. Use the Audience Selector
When creating a post, you can use the audience selector to choose who can see your post. This option is available for both new posts and posts you’ve already shared.
To use the audience selector, follow these steps:
- Click on the audience selector button (it looks like a globe) next to your name at the top of the post.
- Choose who you want to see your post from the drop-down menu. You can select from public, friends, friends except, specific friends, or only me.
- Once you’ve selected your audience, click on “Post” to share your post.
2. Use the “Friends Except” Option
If you want to hide a post from certain people, you can use the “Friends Except” option. This allows you to share a post with all of your friends except for a select few.
To use this option, follow these steps:
- Click on the audience selector button (it looks like a globe) next to your name at the top of the post.
- Choose “Friends Except” from the drop-down menu.
- Select the friends you want to exclude from seeing your post.
- Click on “Save Changes” to update your audience selection.
- Once you’ve selected your audience, click on “Post” to share your post.
3. Use the “Specific Friends” Option
If you only want a select group of friends to see your post, you can use the “Specific Friends” option. This allows you to choose which friends can see your post.
To use this option, follow these steps:
- Click on the audience selector button (it looks like a globe) next to your name at the top of the post.
- Choose “Specific Friends” from the drop-down menu.
- Select the friends you want to see your post.
- Click on “Save Changes” to update your audience selection.
- Once you’ve selected your audience, click on “Post” to share your post.
How to Adjust Your Facebook Privacy Settings
In addition to using the audience selector, you can also adjust your overall Facebook privacy settings to control who can see your posts. Here’s how:
1. Access Your Privacy Settings
To access your privacy settings, follow these steps:
- Click on the down arrow in the top right corner of your Facebook homepage.
- Select “Settings & Privacy” from the drop-down menu.
- Click on “Privacy Shortcuts” from the menu on the left.
2. Choose Your Privacy Settings
From the “Privacy Shortcuts” menu, you can choose who can see your future posts, review your posts and activity, and adjust your privacy settings for specific posts. Here’s how:
- Under “Your Activity”, click on “Who can see your future posts?”
- Choose your audience from the drop-down menu.
- Under “Your Activity”, click on “Review all your posts and things you’re tagged in” to review your past posts and posts you’re tagged in.
- Under “Your Activity”, click on “Limit the audience for posts you’ve shared with friends of friends or public?” to limit the audience for past posts.
- Under “How People Find and Contact You”, click on “Who can send you friend requests?” to choose who can send you friend requests.
- Under “How People Find and Contact You”, click on “Who can look you up using the email address you provided?” to choose who can find you using your email address.
- Under “How People Find and Contact You”, click on “Who can look you up using the phone number you provided?” to choose who can find you using your phone number.
3. Use the “Privacy Checkup” Tool
Facebook also offers a “Privacy Checkup” tool to help you review and adjust your privacy settings. To access this tool, follow these steps:
- Click on the down arrow in the top right corner of your Facebook homepage.
- Select “Settings & Privacy” from the drop-down menu.
- Click on “Privacy Checkup” from the menu on the left.
- Follow the prompts to review and adjust your privacy settings.
How to Adjust Your Facebook Marketplace Privacy Settings
If you use Facebook Marketplace, you may want to adjust your privacy settings to control who can see your listings. Here’s how:
1. Access Your Marketplace Privacy Settings
To access your Marketplace privacy settings, follow these steps:
- Click on the down arrow in the top right corner of your Facebook homepage.
- Select “Settings & Privacy” from the drop-down menu.
- Click on “Settings” from the menu on the left.
- Click on “Marketplace” from the menu on the left.
2. Choose Your Marketplace Privacy Settings
From the “Marketplace” menu, you can choose who can see your listings, who can contact you, and who can see your saved items. Here’s how:
- Under “Privacy”, click on “Who can see your listings?”
- Choose your audience from the drop-down menu.
- Under “Privacy”, click on “Who can contact you about your listings?”
- Choose your audience from the drop-down menu.
- Under “Privacy”, click on “Who can see your saved items?”
- Choose your audience from the drop-down menu.
Takeaways
Facebook offers a variety of privacy settings to help you control who can see your posts and listings. By using the audience selector and adjusting your overall privacy settings, you can ensure that your content is seen by the right audience.
Remember to regularly review and update your privacy settings to ensure your personal information is protected and your posts are seen by the intended audience.