Facebook’s Mission Statement & Vision Analysis

Facebook’s central goal is to enable individuals to share by building networks and drawing nearer to one another. It is assisting individuals with associating with others by giving them a more open existence where obstructions stop to exist. Facebook is a simple-to-utilize stage that helps loved ones stay associated. This article will give you an idea of Facebook’s Mission Statement and Vision Analysis.

Facebook Inc.’s Mission Statement:

“To give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together”.

By this, Facebook does the below:

• Empowers people
• Enables community building
• Connects the world

Facebook Inc.’s Vision Statement:

“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.”

By this, Facebook does the below:

• Connects friends, families, and the world
• It makes people discover
• Allows people to share and express their opinions 

What Is A Mission And A Vision Statement?

A Mission Statement is a brief statement that tells why an organization exists, its overall goal, what type of product or service it provides, the target customers or market, and the geographical region of operation. In short, a mission statement involves all that is needed in the operations of a business to achieve its vision (goal or objective).

A Vision Statement is a statement that reveals what an organization intends to realize or achieve in the future. It is simply the future target, goal, or objective of such an organization. 

Facebook Inc.’s Business And Products

For this analysis, our Facebook use, except otherwise separately called out or specified, includes all subsidiaries of Facebook Incorporation. These subsidiaries (family) are Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Facebook Reality Lab (mainly used for research).

Facebook Inc’s Mission Statement Analysis:

Facebook in 2017, changed its mission statement to align with its present business realities from: “to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected” to: “to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together”. This brings to bear the fact that Facebook thenceforth, recognizes specially the power of community building. By giving people the power to build community and bring the world closer together, Facebook does the below:

1. Empowers people: People are being empowered as they use Facebook and its sister companies’ (Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp) services. These forms of empowerment come:
   
   
   • Financially – This is done with social networks’ power via marketing and advertising of products and services, especially by small-scale business owners, a larger percentage of whom have no physical business units or shops. Facebook is currently working to have small-scale businesses set up shops that they will be able to establish their presence across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp at the same time. Aside from the customers who benefit financially from Facebook’s services, the company, as of the end of December 2020, had a global workforce of 58,604 (comprising people from different backgrounds and races). 
     
     
   • Politically – While Facebook tries to remain non-partisan as a corporate body, several political groups across nations mobilize and enlighten their loyalists and voters through its platforms. In 2020, Facebook ran the largest voter information campaign that helped more than 4 million people register and vote in the US election.
     
     
   • Morally and Ethically – Today, so many religious groups worldwide are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Judaism, Rastafarianism, Traditional African Religion, Sikhism, Shinto, amongst others, are all present on Facebook. And with the prevalence of Covid-19, several programs are being held online, including routine worship sessions.
     
     
   • Educationally – Facebook today serves as an educational research hub to many. With the prevalence of Covid-19, pupils and students now learn remotely via WhatsApp. Many institutions, right from kindergarten – Nursery – Primary – Secondary – Colleges – Universities, have corporate accounts on Facebook. There are great numbers of old students’ groups too. The people are being empowered formally; there are countless informal educational materials/training, too, ranging from cooking, cleaning, hairstyling, cosmetics making, dance, makeup, shoemaking, cabinet making, livestock farming, and more. More so, it’s no doubt that many today have come to gain a good knowledge of the use of the Internet via the use of Facebook.
     
     
   • Medically – Health education and sensitization on Facebook have truly bettered our world today. From simple health tips about sitting positions, how to ease stress, how to eat healthily and exercise; to complex ones that discuss tuberculosis, typhoid, hypertension, Malaria/ Laser fever, HIV/ AIDS, cancer, Diabetes, Hepatitis, Ebola, Covid-19, and lots more, our world is being empowered. These medical aid groups range from smaller ones by individuals who are experts, medical associations, Government-owned, Non-Governmental Organizations, bilateral and multilateral bodies like Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Doctors Without Borders/ Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and World Health Organization (WHO). 
     
     
   • Legally cum Security Wise – From closely all corners of the world, the movement for peace, justice, equity, and freedom is discussed on Facebook. These movements/fights surges from the family – community – state-federal, and international-these movements/ fights surges. Injustices related to marriages, gender, children, people with disabilities, marginalized groups, and race do gain wide attention on Facebook, and many of these eventually yield the desired results. Worthy of note is that, during such disasters like earthquake, flood, or war, Facebook’s Crisis Response tool for marking oneself safe (by those living in the geographical area where the disaster is used by millions of people. This tool automatically sends users in the affected area a prompt asking if they are safe, and it notifies their friends on Facebook when a user is marked safe by their own permission. The request for help can as well be sent via Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Importantly also, there is a Facebook Fundraiser that helps people to donate to victims of disasters.

2. Enables Community Building: Community building is one of the most important things Facebook offers the world. This social fabric has three (3) layers:
   
   
   1. Friends and Families – This is the innermost and personal layer.
   2. Communities or Groups (Financial, Religious, Sports, Educational, Medical, Entertainment, News and many others) – Here, we feel a sense of purpose and belonging, explore interests, develop new skills, grow as individuals and meet new people.
   3. Government, Non-Governmental, Bilateral, and Multilateral Groups.

3. Connects the World: Today, our world has become a Global Village via the internet, to which Facebook plays a major role. News flies at the speed of light, and nothing is new to the world; everything is now a global discussion. With our network connection, we can sit in remote parts of the world and connect with any other person or group via Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Messages and videos make us feel people’s presence and activities from all corners of the world. Thus, homesickness, as experienced on a wide scale in the past, has been inestimably curtailed. 

Facebook Inc’s Vision Statement Analysis

Facebook’s Vision Statement is: “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.” Going by this, Facebook does the below:

Challenges To Facebook Inc’s Mission And Vision Statements:

There are many challenges or threats to Facebook’s Mission and Vision Statements. While we may agree that Facebook has truly connected our world of today, being established in over 80 countries and its services used by billions of people over the world, the below are limitations to its Mission and Vision, respectively:

• Fake Profiles and Phishing: There are too many fake and misleading profiles on Facebook which it has failed to track. Hackers and Scammers are on the rampage. As a result, lives, huge sums of money, and properties are being lost. Many innocent Facebookers have suffered legal actions over these ugly acts as hackers and scammers use their private information to commit crimes. Multiple profiles make the figures released by Facebook as its customer database unreliable.

• Competition: Companies that offer similar services as Facebook unarguably limit their customers and market share. Some of the competitions are Google, Twitter, Apple, YouTube, ByteDance, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Amazon. Quora, Pinterest, Tencent, and Snap.

• Addiction: Today, the use of Facebook has become an addiction or disorder to many. Poor communication between couples or family members, distractions at work, worship places, and schools are becoming alarming. Many have lost their lives while driving and at the same time staying connected to Facebook. Many have got their foods or houses burnt due to this new form of madness. There are cases when some pedestrians are carried away by this new social media disorder and get hit by oncoming vehicles…some lost their lives, while others sustain lifetime injuries. Some people rate this social media addiction worse than indulgences like smoking, alcoholism, and drug abuse.

• Impoverishes Many: While we acknowledge that many make money via Facebook, a greater percentage of those who use its services are only addicted to trivial things like serial videos or pornography that have zero or negative impacts on their lives. They use the money meant to change their lives to purchase data and ignominiously dwell in poverty. The worst of this is when they are underage (many parents, guardians, and schools are not in full control of this, even as Facebook has rated its services 13 and above). 

• Political Interest: Over the years, many have adjudged Facebook to take a side in some nations’ political affairs. The most recent example was the just-concluded US Election, where many Trump loyalists accused Facebook and Twitter of taking sides with Biden.

• Lawsuits: There are so many lawsuits against Facebook relating to advertising, antitrust, privacy, content, etc. These lawsuits are great setbacks. They rob Facebook of its integrity and are money and time-consuming. 

• Government Policies: Some countries have restricted or banned Facebook for political, religious, economic, ethical, or cultural reasons. Some of these countries are China, North Korea, Iran and Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Protection of other social media, silencing of the social media press or opposition by some totalitarian government, high cost of operating the internet, contents without moderation, the controversy over the acceptance of LGBTQ rights and protection are reasons for the ban restrictions.

• Misleading: A lot of fake information that causes separation, divorce, hatred, death, crises, xenophobia, and racial discrimination infiltrates Facebook, with hardly anyone taking responsibility or blame for them. The worst of it is that greater influences like the mainstream media, government authorities, celebrities, notable world leaders are the ones spreading this sugarcoated and misleading information. This contradicts Facebook’s goal of connecting the world.

Recommendations:

The specific type of business Facebook operates is eschewed in its Mission and Vision Statements. They only emphasize connection. Again, while one would accept that Facebook has too many challenges to resolve, ensuring its users’ data security should be its utmost priority. The issue of phishing, hacking, and scamming now and then is an outright betrayal of trust. Resolving the issue of account security would surely curtail many other threats it faces. 

Also read: Facebook Software Engineer Salary & Benefits that Might Fascinate You