Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.) satisfies its corporate mission statement toward fulfilling its corporate vision statement, while promoting innovative changes in the online space. Operating some of the most popular online services, such as Facebook’s social network and marketplace, Meta depends on advertising revenues and online operations, placing the business in competition with large online technology firms. The company’s competitors include social media and online advertising businesses, like Google (Alphabet), X (Twitter), Snap (Snapchat), and Microsoft’s LinkedIn. Also, Facebook Marketplace competes with Amazon, Walmart Marketplace, and eBay. In this context, Meta’s mission statement and vision statement direct the business toward success despite the force of competition shown in the Five Forces analysis of Facebook (Meta Platforms). The current competitive situation involves the new metaverse-focused corporate vision and mission statements of Meta Platforms.
Considering Meta’s strategic shift to the metaverse, encompassing Facebook’s social media and related services, the current vision statement accurately represents the business and its operations. On the other hand, the mission statement remains focused on building connections. These factors indicate that the corporate mission and vision statements guide Facebook’s (Meta’s) operations management to support business growth based on the metaverse.
Facebook’s (Meta’s) Mission Statement
Facebook’s (Meta’s) mission statement is “Giving people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.” This corporate mission statement represents the continuation of Facebook’s purpose of facilitating social connections. The following points are in Meta Platforms’ mission statement:
- Give people the power
- Build community
- Bring the world closer together
Meta’s mission statement reflects business focus on social networking, depicting operations when the company was still known as Facebook. The first point of the corporate mission shows the business purpose of providing “power,” referring to technologies that enable users to create social connections. The second point of the mission statement indicates Meta’s aim of enabling users to join and develop groups or communities. Considering information technology, such communities are online or virtual, augmenting communities in the physical or real world, similar to communities that have long existed on Facebook. The third point of Meta’s mission statement relates to the second point and shows the company’s strategic goal of capturing the global market, including operations in the metaverse, which is highlighted in the corporate vision statement.
The mission statement’s emphasis on facilitating social connections supports Facebook’s (Meta’s) corporate social responsibility and stakeholder management endeavors. Users and communities are stakeholders in the social media business. Also, the company’s success in achieving its corporate mission depends on the social and technological trends outlined in the PESTEL/PESTLE analysis of Facebook (Meta Platforms). For example, sociocultural acceptance and adoption of new social networking tools determine the achievement of the company’s mission statement through services involving virtual reality and augmented reality. Moreover, Facebook’s (Meta’s) generic competitive strategy and intensive growth strategies affect the fulfillment of the corporate mission statement. These strategies influence how the company reaches target customers and keeps them engaged in the metaverse and Facebook’s social network, marketplace, and advertising services.
Facebook’s (Meta’s) Vision Statement
Facebook’s (Meta’s) vision is “To bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses.” This corporate vision statement shows the importance of the metaverse to the company’s long-term development. The following are the main points of Meta Platforms’ vision statement:
- Bring the metaverse to life
- Help people connect and find communities
- Help people grow businesses
The first point of the vision statement emphasizes Meta’s long-term strategic goal of developing the metaverse to a stable and profitable condition in addition to Facebook, Instagram, and other products. In terms of bringing the metaverse to life, the corporate vision reflects the strategic objective of having the technological foundation and capabilities to make the metaverse succeed. On the other hand, the second point of Meta Platforms’ vision statement agrees with the corporate mission statement and specifies facilitating interpersonal connections as a business purpose. Similarly, the third point of the vision statement touches on the importance of the company’s services, especially Facebook’s advertising services and marketplace, in facilitating the growth of businesses.
The vision statement is achievable through the business strengths discussed in the SWOT analysis of Facebook (Meta Platforms). For example, the Facebook brand’s worldwide popularity is a strength that enables the business to attract users to the company’s metaverse products. Also, the corporate vision’s point on creating the metaverse implies business expansion, which may require changes in operations and Facebook’s (Meta’s) organizational structure (corporate structure). The second and third points of the vision statement imply strategies for successfully persuading people and organizations to keep using the company’s online services. In this regard, the corporate vision statement requires that Facebook’s (Meta’s) marketing mix or 4Ps effectively target users and businesses to keep them using the company’s services and metaverse-based products.
Facebook’s (Meta’s) Mission & Vision – Evaluation & Recommendations
Corporate Mission Statement. Considering the technological and social characteristics of the metaverse, Meta Platforms’ mission statement is relevant to the company’s current business operations and industry environment. The mission statement is about helping people build connections, such as through Facebook’s social networking combined with virtual reality. This statement provides an appropriate mission that directs Meta’s strategies based on a unified business purpose. However, the mission statement extends the business purpose of the company when it was still known as Facebook. Thus, an applicable recommendation for improving Meta’s corporate mission statement is to expand the statement to include Facebook’s original corporate mission, as well as new goals or objectives linked to business targets in the metaverse. This improvement can make Meta’s mission statement more aligned with the corporate vision statement.
Corporate Vision Statement. Meta Platforms’ vision statement is appropriate and applicable to the business and its strategic plans for developing the metaverse. This vision statement sees Meta as the primary force behind the establishment of an expansive metaverse. Also, this vision relates to the corporate mission statement in terms of the business goal of facilitating connections among users, such as through Facebook. Furthermore, the vision statement applies to future business scenarios, considering the ongoing development of the metaverse. This future applicability makes the corporate vision statement a long-term guide for Meta’s strategic development. A possible improvement to this vision statement is in describing the kinds of business operations used to address online users’ needs. For example, a recommendation is to make Meta’s vision statement describe the operations of social media and social networking (e.g., Facebook), instant messaging (e.g., Messenger), and virtual reality and augmented reality (e.g., Meta Quest and metaverse-based services) as ways to bring the metaverse to life and to help people connect, find communities, and grow businesses.
References
- Märk, S., & Situm, M. (2024). Long-term guidance in flux: The evolving significance of mission and vision in strategic management. Family Business Transformation: Strategic Orientation and Business Modelling, 1, 1.
- Meta Platforms, Inc. – About Meta.
- Meta Platforms, Inc. – Form 10-K.
- Meta Platforms, Inc. – Investor Relations – Resources.
- Meta Platforms, Inc. – The Metaverse is the Future of Digital Connection.