You hang out in different social circles – friends, family members, colleagues, and acquaintances to name a few. Or you may have a trusted and not-so-trusted circle – Facebook friends you know and trust, and others you’re not really sure about. You don’t always want to share with everyone. Your mom doesn’t need to know about that wild night out you had with your friends, and you probably don’t want to announce to mere acquaintances that you’re going to be on vacation and away from your home for the next two weeks.

The solution? Create a separate friend list for each of your social circles.

With separate lists, you can share information selectively. Here, I explain how to do it. (Note: you can also use these techniques to share with or hide information from individual friends.)

Create a Friend List

To create a friend list and assign some friends to it, here’s what you do:

1. Click Account -> Edit Friends.



2. Click + Create a List.



3. Click in the Enter a name box and type a name for the list, such as Family, Trusted Friends, or Acquaintances.



4. Click each friend you want to include in this list. (If you click a friend by mistake, click the friend again to deselect her.)
   Tip: If your friend list is really long and difficult to scroll through, you can type each friend’s name and select friends that way instead.
5. Click Create List. Facebook creates the list and displays it in the left column.

Edit or Delete a Friend List

You can edit or delete a friend list at any time:

1. Click Account -> Edit Friends.



2. Click the friend list you want to edit.
3. Click X next to a friend’s name to remove him from the list.
4. Click the + next to a friend’s name to add her to the list.
5. To delete the friend list, click Delete List.

Note: Although you can’t recover a deleted list, you can re-create it.

Adjust Your Share Settings

Once you have one or more friend lists, you can use them to selectively share information via your Facebook Privacy Settings. Here’s how:

1. Click Account -> Privacy Settings.



2. Click Customize Settings.



3. Click the button next to the item whose share settings you want to change and click Customize or edit.



4. Open the These people list and click Specific People…



5. Click in the box below the These people list and start typing the name of the desired friend list. As you type, Facebook displays the names of friends and lists that match what you typed so far.



6. When the desired friend list appears, click it.
7. Alternatively, you can choose to hide information from friends on a certain list.
8. Click Save Setting.

Selectively Share Status Updates

If, in your Privacy Settings, you choose to share “Posts by me” with everyone or a large group of people, you can still choose to share status updates and other items with certain friends or individuals on a specific friend list. Here’s what you do to selectively share a status update:

1. Compose the status update as you normally would.



2. Click the button with the lock on it and click Customize.
3. Open the These people list and click Specific People…



4. Click in the box below the These people list and start typing the name of the desired friend list. As you type, Facebook displays the names of friends and lists that match what you typed so far.



5. When the desired friend list appears, click it.
6. Alternatively, you can choose to hide information from friends on a certain list.
7. Click Save Setting.
8. Click Share.

Tip: You can do this with other stuff you share on Facebook, too. For example, to share a photo album with only those people on a certain friend list:

1. Open the photo album as you normally would.
2. Click Edit Album.
3. Open the Privacy list and click Customize.
4. Open the These people list and click Specific People…
5. Click in the box below the These people list and start typing the name of the desired friend list. As you type, Facebook displays the names of friends and lists that match what you typed so far.
6. When the desired friend list appears, click it.
7. Alternatively, you can choose to hide information from friends on a certain list.
8. Click Save Setting.