How to navigate share settings on Facebook
While you’re scrolling through your Facebook News Feed, you see a video or photo and you want to share. There should be a Share button on the bottom righthand side of the post. If you don’t see a Share button, it has to do with the privacy settings of the person who posted it. (I will talk about that more later.) When you click the Share button, you have several options: Share Post Now (Friends), Share, Send as Message, Share on Friend’s Timeline and lastly, if you manage a Facebook page, click Share to Page. What do all these do?
Share Post Now (Friends): When you click this button, it will automatically share on your Timeline.
Share: Will give you a pop-up screen and allow you to write something on the post and select which friends you want to see the post.
Send as a Message: Will allow you to send the post directly to a Friend on your Facebook Messenger.
Share on a Friend’s Timeline: Will share the post directly on a Friend’s Timeline.
Share to Page: Will share the post directly on a business page.
Posts shared on Timelines: Will be viewed by all your
Friends and if you share on a Friend’s Timeline, it will be seen by all their Friends. This is provided your Timeline settings are set to Friends. You can change your Timeline Settings so posts can’t be put directly on your Timeline without your approval. This also works for tagging you in photos.
On your profile page, in the cover photo, you should see three dots on the right-hand bottom corner, click and select Timeline Settings. You can also access the setting from the main page using the down arrow and select settings and Timeline & Tagging. From there, you can select your settings for Timeline, Tagging and Review. If you wish to be the only one to post to your Timeline, then select Only Me under the Timeline section. Note that this will also remove the option for people to like, comment and share any of your posts. When you turn on the review function, you will receive a notification from Facebook that someone has tagged you in a post or shared a post to your Timeline. You will have the option to approve it before it will go on your
Timeline.
Sharing on Facebook is a great way to spread the word and have a good laugh, but without the correct privacy settings, you could be sharing too much information.
Melissa Reeves is the owner of Take Root Marketing in the Annapolis Valley. She lives with her husband and four children on their small farm in Woodville, Kings County. Find her online at www.takerootmarketing.net.