Reaching the right audience with your content is important for a successful social media strategy. This doesn't just relate to advertisements but also to the organic content you put out there. Even though the options are limited compared to paid content, you can still have control over who will see your messages. This article covers all feed targeting and geo-gating features available in Publish.

Geo-gating vs. feed targeting

There are two distinct options available for defining the audiences that your content will appear to.

First, there's Geo-gating (available only for Facebook posts). Geo-gating allows you to specify that your content is to appear exclusively to users in your selected countries, cities, or regions. Users outside the selected locations will not be able to view that content at all, even with a link.

Second, there's Feed targeting (available for Facebook and LinkedIn Company Page posts). Only the users fitting your specified demographics criteria will receive the targeted post in their News Feed. However, all users, including those outside of your specified demographics will still be able to view the post on your Channel's post feed.

How do I apply geo-gating to a Facebook post?

1. In Publish, while creating a new post, scroll to the Geo-gating module on the left.
2. Under Display this content to people living in, click the box and type to search a continent, country, region, or city.
3. If applicable, search and select more locations, or remove selections by clicking X.
4. (Optional - Only applicable if you have selected a continent) Click Exclude locations to search and select countries to exclude from your selected continent.

Please bear in mind that it is only possible to exclude locations when you have selected a continent to include (rather than a country, region, or city). In addition, you can only select from countries from within that continent to exclude.

For example, it's not possible to exclude a state/region/city from a selected country, nor can you exclude a country without first selecting a continent to include.

How do I change a user's default geo-gating settings?

Admin and Team Lead users can set a default geo-gating for other users in Social Media Management. The users who have default geo-gating activated can only create Facebook content that is gated to audiences within those locations. You can follow the below instructions to set this up for a user:

1. Hover over your profile image in the bottom left and navigate to Settings in the popup menu.
2. Navigate to the Users section in Settings.
3. Find the user you want to apply the default geo-gating for and click their user card.
4. Under the General tab of the user's settings, click Show Advanced.

5. Under Geo-targeting, select the countries that the user's content should be gated to.

   
6. Click Save Changes.

When the user creates a new Facebook post in Publish, they can only geo-gate to the selection of countries you set, or any region or city within those countries.

How do I apply feed targeting to a Facebook or LinkedIn post?

Feed targeting is available for Facebook and LinkedIn Company Page content, but the available targeting options differ between the two networks. Furthermore, LinkedIn requires your targeted audience size to be comprised of at least 300 of your Page's followers. If you target your post to fewer of your followers, the content can't be published. Facebook does not put limitations on the size of your targeting audience.

Targeting your content can be done in the following way:

1. While creating a post in the Publish Editor, scroll down in the left-hand section of the Editor, to the section Feed-targeting (Facebook) or Targeting (LinkedIn), and click to unfold it.

2. Select or type the targeting options of your choice. For Facebook posts, be sure to click Add.