An Analysis of Facebook Mission and Vision (Updated in 2017)
Founded in 2004, Facebook became 18 years old on February 4th of 2022.
The social networking website has grown to become the world’s largest social media platform.
In the short span of its existence, the brand has grown a very large follower base.
Its number of followers had crossed a billion in 2012 only which increased to 2.8 billion in 2020.
In 2016, its user base had grown to 1.79 billion.
In these years, its revenue has also continued to improve with its customer base.
Facebook has also emerged as a strong competitor of Google in mobile advertising. The two internet giants continue to garner the lion’s share together in online advertising.
Facebook’s job is to connect people together and it is pursuing its mission very well.
The brand is actively growing and has acquired a number of other social media brands and other businesses including Instagram, Whatsapp, and Oculus.
Here follows an analysis of Facebook’s mission and vision statement:
- Mission and Vision Analysis of Facebook
The mission and vision statements are an important part of organizational strategy.
One is the reason behind the brand’s existence or its objective and the other sets the course for the future.
Several companies have elaborate mission and vision statements that detail there strategy for the future as well as how they are achieving their goals and serving the world.
In case of several brands the mission and vision statements are separate and in case of several they are unified. When you visit Facebook’s about page, you will find its mission and vision noted there. The statements are unified. Facebook states its mission and vision as:
Founded in 2004, Facebook’s mission was (old mission – to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them).
New Mission of Facebook, updated in 2017 –
 Give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.
Analysis and Recommendations:
Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share by building communities and getting closer to each other. It is helping people connect with others by giving them a more open world where barriers cease to exist. Facebook is an easy to use platform that helps friends and families remain connected.
Sharing and expressing their feelings – both are possible through this social media platform. However, there are some critical characteristics of a good mission and vision statement. It must set a clear course for future or lay down the brand’s strategy to achieve its future goals. It points out the direction in which the brand is headed, and also outlines its position in the market.
Facebook states how it functions or the purpose it serves with a very general statement about the way it is headed. It is not clear about its future goals and the market position it is working to achieve.
Facebook is a leading global technology player in the global market with its customers spread throughout the various corners of the globe. However, the mission statement does not highlight what are the future challenges before Facebook and how well it is positioned to handle them.
Apart from that, the mission and vision statements are critical to decision making in an organization. They should provide guidance over decision making and resource allocation.
Facebook’s mission statement does not speak of customers, employees or its social responsibility either. It is only focused at its main business that is to enable connections, sharing and building communion.
It does not highlight its global market or its market position as number one in social media. It must have been more specific too because most of these things are generic and easily understandable for a social media platform.
Moreover, a brand’s mission and vision must be feasible. It must be feasible in the sense that the brand’s goals must be accomplishable. Facebook’s mission is feasible because it is already doing the job of connecting people and will continue to do so in future.
However, the vision and mission statement of Facebook leaves out several things. It does not highlight its market size or even the other brands it has acquired in the several years of its existence.
Neither is there a mention of the employees or growth strategy and CSR strategy of the brand. There are several things that might be included if Facebook decided to update its mission and vision statement.