Being a top social networking platform, Facebook started its journey from a dorm room. Until 2009, The company did not even have 1000 employees.
But as for today, The company is not just the biggest name but has more than 13,000 workers.
In 2020, they had around 52 534 people working for them. Even after the continuing rise of other social media, Facebook is popular and has more than 2.45 billion people.
Facebook connected people from different countries, offering a platform that made more connections and was easy to use.
The Facebook scenario is much more about a leadership strategy that promises to bring the sources for powering the people and sharing what they want.
The reason how Facebook became so popular and successful, there are some important core values, mission statements, and values that other businesses should understand first.
What To Know About Facebook & Its Core Values?
Facebook was launched in 2004 by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The headquarter of the company is situated in the US. And they serve worldwide geographic areas.
Since the day it was launched, Facebook has been seen as the most reliable, all-progressive, and dynamic social media network on a global level.
With the mindset of creativity, strategy, and management, Facebook made its own way and created something extraordinary.
Facebook does not offer a platform where people can easily connect but it also empowers people to use their voice for what matters the most.
Because of the ease of use and connection worldwide, Facebook invited different businesses, companies from small to large, individuals, etc., to join.
For Facebook, their vision statement, mission, and values are not just hints on what the company wants to position itself. But also discloses how their values can help strengthen their platform.
With this, they can meet their user’s requirements and needs. Also, the mission statement exploits what they can achieve.
With its adaptive vision statement, mission, and values, Facebook has become the top social media platform that connects people from every corner of this planet.
Core Values Of Facebook
Facebook’s core values are based on being bold and having an impact. It is also about moving fast and being open to everyone. The core values helped the company to move forward and serve its purpose.
The five important core values of Facebook help the company to improve and guide throughout the journey. To understand the values, here is what to know.
Be Bold
Facebook‘s CEO and Co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg, filed the initial public offering in 2012. In he wrote that his employees live by taking risks.
According to him, there is nothing more than taking no risks.
Facebook encourages bold decisions, even if it means taking the wrong ones. With that attitude. The company stayed on top and forefront of innovation.
Focus On Impact
Employees who work for Facebook thrive on creating something new. Also, they keep looking towards new ways that can help in improvement.
Also, they need to have a personal drive that can help more in achieving the mission of the company. The mission of the company is to make the world connected and more open.
Move Fast
One of the mantras that Zukerberg found is to “Move fast and break things.”
As the company becomes mature. The value doesn’t get lost, and the company still focuses on moving fast and being innovative in all possible ways, which fuels the speed of growth.
Here, they are much more concerned about losing opportunities by being too slow rather than afraid of making mistakes.
Be Open
Facebook believes in openness and transparency. It includes building community and collaboration. It’s the way of working together for better results.
Facebook has open floor plans to get constant feedback on its culture. They embrace the people, and workers have more transparency as well as collaboration.
Build Social Value
Facebook is based on strength-based. The company is built on the talent of the individual instead of focusing on strengthening the weakness.
Well, this allows people to work on what they find interesting and meaningful. Facebook is highly focused on influencing positive changes in society.
The people are working for the organization focus on having a role that impacts and gives something to the world.
Mission Statement oF Facebook
According to the mission statement of Facebook. The company’s mission is to prove the power to the people so they can share and make a more connected and open world.
The mission statement focuses on the influential role that the client plays and the difference they make.
Well, with the change in landscape, Facebook also readjusted its mission statement and redefined it.
With the new mission statement, the company is also focusing on the impact that they are leaving on socialites for the reputation-sustaining model.
Based on their mission statement, they have different elements covered, which include:
Making the World Connected
To satisfy this element, Facebook did beyond the expected performance. Not just the element get covered, but it also became the platform of the modern tailored system.
Here people link with others regardless of the location or institution. Without any limitations, people can connect whenever they want.
The environment created on this platform is exactly what the world needs to thrive and continue as a global village.
Improving Lives
To ensure that the company is fulfilling this, they have integrated various platforms to impact people’s lives. Also, to improve as well as additional values.
The help of this program and its presence shows that the platform is much more than connecting people.
Also, the industrial sections included people, companies, and opportunities for leaving a long-lasting impact on others.
People exchange their information and can attract more opportunities for themselves.
Encouraging The Sharing Of Ideas
For this component, The company keeps adding new features to make sure that their usability and the platform are convenient for a constructive purpose.
Facebook offers optimization mechanisms and fundamentals, and with that, people have unlimited ways by which they have options on how to express their ideas, among others.
Vision Statement Of Facebook
A Facebook vision statement says that people should use Facebook to connect with their family and friends.
The platform should be used for discovering and sharing or expressing the things that matter.
The statement focuses on the company’s impact on the social media sector. Also, it brings out the dissemination of knowledge and social building as important factors.
Facebook’s vision statement wants to be associated with these to serve the characteristics of a mission statement as well.
Freedom In Expression
One of the most developed components from the vision statement, Facebook creates an interactive as well as a free-of-speech platform for their users.
With this platform, the users can share and form a voice of what is important and matters to them truly. Also, use it for criticizing and critique pointed out the problems that bother them.’’
Facebook played the role of the medium that provided a place where the voice of people could be heard and respected.
In addition to its rules and regulations, the company covers communication forms. Not just its a most protective package, but it also attracted billions of users to choose Facebook.
Creating A Bond
Facebook put the bridges that cause physical barriers to build as well as maintain the relations. Not just was it their top priority but one of the elements that attracted people from different places.
The company integrated the social media platform with different sites like Instagram so that people can stay in touch no matter where they are.
Without adding any limitations, the company offered ease in texting and video calling features. People can easily use the features to connect with anyone they want across the globe.
Also, those who stay apart from their family or friends can connect easily.
Information Discovery
More than giving a platform that serves entertainment and social interaction, the company is offering much more than that to the people.
Expanding their operation, they also added business and education features to meet the different requirements of their users.
With this, individuals can learn whatever they like as there are no limitations.
Facebook offers an opportunity to everyone where people are equally treated and have the chance to learn and connect.
Reason Why Facebook Is Successful?
As compared to others, Facebook was a latecomer that defied the mantra of “ First mover advantage’ in business.
Even having a late addition to the social networking market, Facebook successfully built its image and achieved the success that never witnessed before.
However, behind the success of Facebook, there are lots of reasons that worked. To know more, here are the points you need to know:
Mark Zukerberg built facebook’s first version in his spare time and in his Harvard dorm room. Unlike any other business, it was not written or had any business plan.
Also, he didn’t ask his friends, advisors, or anyone to approve of the idea. Also, he didn’t force research marketing or follow any steps that most entrepreneurs do.
By not following any steps that most entrepreneurs do, he was more into building something that can be cool like nothing else.
He focused on building a cool product that could be launched fast, and that’s how Facebook came into existence.
It All About Execution
After Facebook was launched, Two Seniors from Harvard, The WInklevosses, said that the idea was theirs and was stolen by Mark Zuckerberg.
The fight became huge and led to a legal fight that lasted over a decade.
Meanwhile, outside of Harvard, many entrepreneurs launched the same ideas, but that didn’t affect Facebook until now.
The reason is simple; it’s all about the execution. The idea costs nothing, but making something is valuable.
Keeping It Simple
Making the idea into reality is a dream, but what happens after that plays a huge role in success. Sometimes markets put too much effort into adding features that make it too complicated for them.
It takes too much time and development, and the idea becomes leapfrogged when it launches.
The first version of ‘Facebook’ was extremely simple and on time. Well, over time, Facebook developed better and better.
However, they made sure that the service was still easy to use.
Primary Focus On Product
In the early days, Mark Zuckerberg had no interest in doing business with Facebook. Instead of doing that, he used his energy and focused on improving the product.
Well, the obsession continued too far, making him turn down the advertisement clients back to back. He didn’t want to have ads that muck the services.
For Zukerberg, He wanted to make his Facebook cool, and ads were not helping it.
As Facebook speeds its growth, Zukerberg puts his attention on other things. Then he started to hire senior executives to run the business and maintain the finances.
By the time Facebook was ready to go public, Zukerberg had sent a written letter to shareholders, stating that his company’s first focus was to fulfill the social mission.
In the letter, he made it clear that the business should be in second at all costs.
Instead of focusing on business or shareholder value, Zukerberg focused on Facebook products.
A Good Team Is A Strength
From Steve Jobs to Mark Zuckerberg, All the big names in business understand the importance of a good team.
As Steve Jobs admired that it’s not possible to handle everything on their own. And to create a great company is to build a great team.
Well, the strength of any company is not based on its technology or products; it’s about the people.
The reason is simple technology and products change faster.
Mark Zukerberg has skills in hiring people but he is good at firing too. And to make a great team, both skills are required.
No matter how smart the hiring process is, there will be some wrong selections. Or there will be some people who don’t have anything to contribute during the growth of the business.
To avoid getting into mediocrity, it’s important to fire people on time.
Facebook did the same thing in the early stages. They hired lots of wrong selections but after spotting the errors; they replaced them too.
Having A Control
Every company has three constituencies divided Customers, Shareholders, and Employees.
A successful business includes the balance between three interests. . But with Facebook, it was always under the control of Mark Zuckerberg.
If public shareholders controlled Facebook, it was more focused on the short term, and with that, they might have cut the cost of research and development.
Or more focused on taking shortcuts to meet the quarterly numbers.
But in the case of Venture capitalist control, Facebook was sold long ago.
Since Mark Zukerberg never shared the control, the company focused more on long-term visions rather than meeting short-term rewards or capitalizing.
Roll Out New Features Instead of Focusing Group
As Steve Jobs said, Customers don’t every time know what they want. For Apple, he made sure to figure out what the customers wanted and then offered them.
Facebook worked in the same way. Instead of focusing on grouping their features, they rolled out something new.
Not every time, the features were welcomed. Lots of times, the new features met with screams and angry outrage.
Facebook goes with adapting the new feature or removing it based on what the screams are about.
For example, News Feed was hated in its initial days. But Facebook kept the feature but they made some changes based on the complaints and concerns of users.
Well, now, News Feed is the most important feature of Facebook.
Instead of focusing on following the focus groupings, Facebook launched new features every time. And based on how people react, they keep or remove it.
Lots of time, the features were not removed, even getting backlashes. And waiting time to pass for finally working for people.
Cultivate Smart Advisors And Learn
Venture capitalist Ben Horowitz said CEOs are not born; they are made.
But to make the Ceo, Leadership and management are two must-have skills. Either you have it, or you learn it.
Mark Zuckerberg, as a CEO, was deliberately acquired. In early development, he was considered a lousy leader. Even his executives commented that he should take CEO lessons.
Zuckerberg put his effort into learning as fast as it was possible for him. For that, he cultivated a group of smart advisors with the best investors, entrepreneurs, and executives in the country.
The group included Steve Jobs, investors Peter Theil, VC Marc Andressen, Warren Buffett, Accel Partners’ Jim Breyer, and many more.
He learned from them and recruited people to Facebook. With this, he made a transformation from being a lousy leader to a great one.
Growing A Thick Skin
Doing something new, hard, interesting, or innovative will receive criticism.
The same thing happened with Facebook in the starting to even now. The more they become successful, the harder criticism turns.
Facebook didn’t enjoy it, but they grew the thick skin that made them tolerate it. The criticism can be from anyone and from anywhere. People who work with competitors might have frustration.
Mark Zukerberg had an immense amount of criticism directed toward him. From his lousy leader attitude to making big mistakes, everyone had their eyes on what he was doing.
He made lots of people angry and received criticism. Mark Zukerberg let that go and focused on building Facebook.
Thinking About Being Done Means It Done
Facebook blew Myspace collapsing after a few years, and finally won the race.
It was successful at a point where they could have set back and enjoyed the job.
But the company, including users and shareholders, was never done. Facebook kept working, adding more to create a distance between them and competitors.
Every time something is invented something, Facebook copies the same. According to Zuckerberg, Facebook is just 1% done.
Famous words from Andy Grove say Only the paranoid can survive. And that became the reason for Facebook to grow.
Offering A Ease To Use
Facebook is easy to use and has simple access.
Comparing it to the rival, Twitter, even though they both have a different purpose. But they do share social networking as common ground.
Unlike Twitter, Facebook doesn’t rely on hashtags for trending words or @ for tagging. The users can simply type the name, and it will appear.
Also, Facebook is designed to recognize what the users are tagging for and allow it.
Overall, Facebook has much easier to understand and use the feature. Because of this, All ranges of people of different ages are using the platform.
Identifying What Could Kill And Making Sure it Doesn’t
Before Facebook, there were different college networks. So, it was not the first social network.
But in the real world, Friendster and Myspace were well established as well as creating a buzz.
However, later on, Friendster made a grave mistake. They failed to restrict their usage without a back-end infrastructure supporting it.
The demand becomes too much, and Friendster turns slow to crawl. When they fixed the problem and returned, the users chose other options.
When Zuckerberg and his co-founder came up with Facebook, they made sure to keep their new registration in control.
To keep it easy, they applied to one school at a time. By this, they had the infrastructure that could easily handle the situation.
Zukerberg understood the potential things in the market that could kill Facebook. And With that, he made sure not to fall into the trap.
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Business, marketing, and blogging – these three words describe me the best. I am the founder of Burban Branding and Media, and a self-taught marketer with 10 years of experience. My passion lies in helping startups enhance their business through marketing, HR, leadership, and finance. I am on a mission to assist businesses in achieving their goals.