How to Use Facebook Lists and the Audience Selector to Target Your Posts

Not every post is meant for every friend. Photos from a child's birthday party might be for family only. A rant about your commute might be fine for close friends but not your boss. Facebook has built-in tools for this, but many people never look past the default. Once you know where they are, choosing an audience takes two seconds.

The audience selector

Every time you create a post, a small button appears under your name showing the current audience, such as Friends or Public. Tap it to change who will see that post. The main options are:

People tagged in a post, and possibly their friends, may also be able to see it depending on your tagging settings, so keep that in mind when you tag someone.

Step by step: share a post with a select group

1. Start a new post.
2. Tap the audience button under your name.
3. Choose Specific friends (to include only certain people) or Friends except... (to leave certain people out).
4. Search for and select the people.
5. Tap Done or Save, then write and publish your post.

Facebook remembers this choice for your next post. If you just shared something with "Specific friends: Grandma and Grandpa," make sure you switch back before posting something meant for everyone.

Friend lists: build once, reuse often

Typing names every time gets old. Friend lists let you group people and pick the whole group at once. Facebook has offered several kinds:

• Close Friends: the people you share most with.
• Acquaintances: people you're friends with but share less with. A handy pattern is posting to Friends except Acquaintances.
• Restricted: people who only see your public posts and posts they're tagged in.
• Custom lists: groups you name yourself, such as "Family," "Soccer parents" or "Book club."

You can usually manage a person's lists from their profile: tap the Friends button and choose Edit friend list. Facebook has moved these menus several times, so if you don't see list options in your app, try the desktop site, or search Facebook Help for "friend lists." Our guide to Facebook friend lists covers setup in more detail, and using the Acquaintances list to hide updates explains that list specifically.

Change the audience of a post you've already shared

1. Find the post on your profile.
2. Tap the three-dot menu.
3. Choose Edit audience (or Edit privacy).
4. Pick a new audience.

To change many old posts at once, Facebook offers a Limit past posts option, which switches all your old Public and Friends of friends posts to Friends. You'll find it in Privacy Checkup and in your privacy settings; our 5-minute Facebook Privacy Checkup explains it.

Set a sensible default

Your default audience is simply what the selector shows when you start a new post. For most people, Friends is the right default. Use Public deliberately, post by post, rather than leaving it as the starting point. Stories have their own separate audience setting, so check that one too.

Ideas for parents

Targeting posts is especially useful when you share about your kids:

• Family-only photos. Create a "Family" list and share children's photos, report cards and milestones only with that list.
• Leave out work contacts. Use Friends except... for personal family news.
• Respect your teen. As children get older, ask before sharing their photos at all. A post to a small list is easier to agree on than a post to everyone you've ever met.
• Avoid location details. Even with a small audience, skip school names, addresses and real-time locations. Friends can screenshot and reshare.

For teens who use Facebook, the same tools help them manage the classic problem of having parents, relatives, teachers and classmates all on one friend list. Showing them how Specific friends and the Restricted list work often goes over better than asking them to post less. It pairs well with the advice in our guide to distancing yourself without unfriending.

Remember: an audience isn't a vault

Choosing a small audience reduces who sees a post, but it doesn't guarantee privacy. Anyone who can see a post can take a screenshot, and people tagged in it may widen who sees it. A useful rule of thumb for adults and teens alike: post things you'd be comfortable seeing shared beyond the audience you picked.

Common mistakes to avoid

A few slip-ups catch even careful posters:

• Forgetting the sticky audience. You shared one post with Specific friends, and the next three went to the same tiny group, or the reverse: a private post goes out to everyone because the last post was Public.
• Tagging widens the circle. Tagging a friend can let their friends see the post, depending on settings. Check before tagging in sensitive posts.
• Sharing in groups. Posts in a group follow the group's privacy, not your audience selector. A post in a public group is public.
• Comments on public posts. Your comment on someone else's Public post is visible to anyone who can see that post.

Audience checklist

• Default audience set to Friends.
• A Family list (or similar) for kids' photos and personal news.
• Unwanted contacts on Acquaintances or Restricted.
• Check the audience button before every sensitive post.
• Run Limit past posts once if you've been on Facebook for years.
• Talk with your teen about lists before they need them.