What is a Facebook dark post?

A Facebook dark post is one that doesn’t appear on the newsfeed on a brand's owned page. Instead it is only seen by a target demographic. They’re called ‘dark’ because they are ‘unpublished’ on your timeline. NB: not to be confused with the dark web in any way.

Dark posts can be used for many reasons:

To send a bespoke message to a target group of people rather than one ‘catch-all’ post on a brand’s own page
To reach out to new followers, not just those who already follow the brand’s page
To be able to run multiple campaigns for multiple products or services in multiple regions without cluttering up the main feed

An update on the definition of 'what is a Facebook dark post'

At the end of 2017, as transparency became a big issue for social media companies, especially concerning the rise in fake news, Facebook announced that dark posts will no longer be ‘unpublished’. Instead, a new system will allow anyone to be able to view any ads run by a brand on Facebook. This will change the way some brands use paid social in 2018.

More info here:

You can learn more about managing your brand's dark posts and social adverts by downloading our free toolkit.