Jack Welch said that when the rate of external change exceeds the rate of internal change, your company is on a road to death. Controlling threats will buy you time. But ultimately, it will lead to death

The story “Social Media Banned from College Stadiums”  is another small chapter in Higher Education’s relationship with Social Media.  It’s part of a general theme of traditional institutions trying to control what they perceive as threats to their revenue.

The reality is that changing internally to take advantage of changing external forces is always the way to growth – fighting those forces can merely buy you time on the way to your death.  See Record Industry.

Traditional institutions and their leadership are typically reactionary.  These external forces will forcibly alter the model by which they exist and thrive in their market.

On the bright side, this new model will have distinct advantages over the old one, not least of which is the ability to crowdsource media creation and scale connection with audiences.

The call to action should always be: get your head out of the sand, adapt to the changes that are coming. For specifics on how to adapt, read our post: Social Media in Higher Education, a How To.