A post which really connects with your audience has so much value. You’re building relationships with your customers. If the post has a call to action, you may get higher engagement (which is has a nice impact on Facebook’s algorithm). And, maybe, you might just make someone’s day if your posts makes someone laugh or reveals that thing they’ve been searching for weeks to find.
It can seem impossible to create a post which really hits home to everyone on your page, especially if you’ve got a broad demographic of fans. But there is a little workaround where you can target individual posts to specific audiences.
Many people think that it’s only possible to target a specific demographic on your Facebook Page via Facebook ads. Thankfully, that is not the case at all. It is, however, a sneaky little secret that may need to turn on before you can use.
For those who have been using Facebook Pages for a long time, they will remember this tool was publically available for everyone a few years ago, then it disappeared mysteriously. Luckily, it is an option which you can turn on easily to have it return to your Page. Hooray!
There are loads of opportunities to take advantage of with this nifty little Facebook hack. Let’s find out more…

What is Facebook Demographic Targeting?

When you make a post on your Page, instead of your post appearing to all fans, you can have it show up just to select groups.
For example, your post could just appear to teens, or women, or just to people in a specific country.

How do I use it?

When you go to write a post, simply hit the ‘targeting’ crosshair icon to the right of the ‘Publish’ button. It will give you two options of targeting: your Preferred Audience, or serving to a Restricted Audience.

(If you don’t have a crosshair, don’t worry! I show you how to find the settings to turn this nifty feature on below!)

The Options

Preferred Audience
Preferred audience serves the post to fans with particular interests. For example, if you know your post will be of interest to football fans, or business owners, or people who like a specific tv show. It’s useful if you have a wide audience on your page and you just want to target people who are likely to be receptive to your post.
We can infer that this is simply giving Facebook some ‘guidance’ on your preference of who this is served to, and that this post may also be served to people outside that group.

Audience Restrictions
Audience restrictions is a straightforward cut-off line. Serving a post just to a specific audience means only that audience will see it. This is especially relevant if you’ve got content which might be sensitive to younger members of your community, so you may wish to make you post 18 +, of you are running a competition where only a specific country or state can enter.
Alternatively, you might have a campaign which is focussing on a group – for example, a competition giving away ladies jewelry.
Really understanding your audience so you can serve content that they will really connect with is ideal. To this end,  demographic targeting is a useful trick to keep up your sleeve.

How do you turn on the settings?

For many people, the targeting settings are not switched on by default.
Are you missing the crosshair targeting option on your Page status updates?

You want it to look more like this!….

Here’s how to activate it…

Head to your Page Settings.

From there, look down the Settings until you see Audience Optimization For Posts. Click on Edit.

This will give you the option to target your posts. Tick the box and hit Save.

Now, when you head back out to your Page to make posts, you will see a little targeting icon! Success!

Now, you can post away!
Do you have any little-known Facebook tips? Let us know in the comments, give us the DL in my Facebook Group!

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Want to work with Rachel?

Rachel Beaney is a writer and social media content specialist, helping businesses connect with their audiences.

She’s worked with local, national and global companies, in addition to not-for-profits and government bodies. She loves helping businesses tell their stories with creative and data-driven solutions.

She is based in Sydney, Australia.

Want to work together? Rachel would love to hear from you. Get in touch today.