How to Make a Facebook Post Shareable
Make a Facebook post shareable by setting its audience to Public — the Share button only appears on public posts. Where the setting is, and why it may be missing.
Updated
Quick answer
A post can be shared by other people only when its audience is Public. The Share button is not a separate setting — it appears and disappears based on the post's audience.
For a post you are about to write, set the audience selector (the small dropdown next to your name in the composer) to Public. For a post that already exists:
Where to click
- three-dot menu
- Edit audience
- Public
- Settings & privacy
- Settings
- Privacy
- Who can see your future posts
Facebook renames these menus periodically. If a label does not match, read the screen you are on rather than forcing this exact wording.
Why it works this way
Sharing republishes your post to an audience you cannot see. If a Friends-only post were shareable, a friend could hand it to strangers, which would break the promise the audience setting makes. So Facebook only offers Share on content that is already public.
That logic explains every case where the button is missing:
- Friends-only post — not shareable by others. You can share your own post anywhere, but others cannot.
- Post in a private group — follows the group's privacy. Nothing leaves a private group, whoever wrote it.
- Someone else's post with a limited audience — you may see it, but you cannot push it wider than the author allowed.
- A profile with [locked settings](/privacy/how-to-lock-facebook-profile) — locking converts past public posts to friends, which also removes their Share buttons.
Making one post public, safely
Public means anyone, including people outside Facebook when the post is indexed by search engines. Before flipping a post to Public:
- Reread it as a stranger would — names, locations, kids' schools, plates in photos.
- Check the photo itself. The caption may be harmless while the image is not.
- Decide about comments. Public posts draw strangers; you can limit who can comment while leaving sharing open.
- Change audience: three-dot menu on the post → Edit audience → Public.
The change is immediate, and you can set it back to Friends at any time — though anyone who already shared it keeps their copy.
If you want the opposite
It cuts both ways: setting a post back to Friends removes the Share button and hides existing shares' content from non-friends. If your feed habits have drifted more public than you intended, the make your profile private guide walks the settings back in one pass, and who shared my post shows you where an old public post has already travelled.
Official source
Meta documents audience selection at the Help Center. The audience selector on your own post is the final authority.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Why is there no Share button on my post?
- The audience is not Public. Friends-only posts cannot be shared by others because sharing would expose the post beyond the audience you chose. Change the post's audience to Public and the button appears.
- Can I make just one post shareable without making my profile public?
- Yes. Audience is set per post. Making one post Public does not change your default audience, your profile visibility, or any other post.
- Why can people still not share my public group post?
- Posts in private groups follow the group's privacy, not yours. Content in a private group cannot be shared outside it regardless of your settings.
- Does shareable mean everyone sees it in their feed?
- No. Public controls who is able to see and share the post. Distribution still depends on normal ranking, and shares mostly reach the sharer's friends.