Vince Lombardi’s Super Bowl of Social Media Advice [Quotes]

What Social Media Marketers Can Learn From A Football Giant

Coach Vince Lombardi, for whom the Super Bowl Trophy is named, won five NFL Championships, during his tenure with the Green Bay Packers. Lombardi’s teachings are as applicable to social media as they are to football.

Here are seven classic Vince Lombardi quotes and how they apply to social media.

“Football is like life – it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.” You could substitute social media for football in this quote and it’d be a great definition of social media. (Here’s a fuller list of social media definitions.)
“The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.” I love this quote! Like anything worthwhile, social media requires on-going engagement and contribution. While it’s not work in the traditional sense, it requires effort from each member of the community.
“Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.” At its best, social media is a supportive group effort where people pitch in to help others, whether it’s an answer to a business question or raising money for a good cause (like Tweetsgiving). From an individual perspective, this provides a sense of assurance that someone’s got your back. Using it for financial or personal gain can hurt you. LeBron James’s building his following for his one big announcement was an example of this.
“If you can accept losing, you can’t win.” Understand that everyone starts social media engagement at the same point. Accept you’ll make missteps along the way, whether in haste, accident or not knowing. Where possible, make amends and strive to do better. It’s important to bear in mind social media has a social responsibility.
“Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” Social media is based on collaborative behavior and paying-it-forward. It’s about the community as a whole, not your individual gain. In essence, social media is everyone working together to help each other in a positive way.
“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” The more engaged you become in the social media ecosystem, the more it provides in terms of support and friendship. The warmth of the community helps keep you going.
“The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.” Social media enables you to take what you have and build something with it. Social media goes beyond just small talk with family and friends on Facebook. What can you do to build something? You can use a blog, Flickr or YouTube. For some great examples, check out Ron Diorio’s photographs on Flickr or Salman Khan’s Khan Academy on YouTube. They each have used social media to share their expertise in a way that changes how we see the world.

Vince Lombardi’s lesson, whether you’re a football player or social media participant, is that you must be prepared to push yourself to do your best for yourself and the others in your community, whether it’s on the field or a social network.

Are there any other classic Vince Lombardi quotes that you’d add to this list and what are the social media implications you’d apply to them?

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Here are some related articles based on quotes that you may be interested in reading.

Photo source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vince_Lombardi.png