Recently, PRSA members and friends gathered at Bentley University in Waltham for the third annual Social Media Summit. The theme this year was “Social Crossroads,” in honor of the maturation of social media at organizations from “Awareness” to “Adoption” to more mature models, represented by many of the speakers and panelists that day.

Below are just some of the insights shared by our speakers. Before diving into the summary, we should point out that we collected the presentation slides from the Summit on SlideShare here.

In the opening keynote, Victor Lee, vice president digital marketing at toy and game company Hasbro, reminded us that social media is still young, and will continue to change. Facebook is already 10 years old and Lee pointed out that is an incredibly young age for a company and an industry. He added that we really don’t know where social media and its various channels will take us. What we do know is that we have already been able to deduce such tactics and strategies like the effectiveness of visuals in reaching audience and using outside factors to attribute mood as well as always experiment.

Next, our panel on Internal Communications with companies including IT service provider EMC Corporation, financial services company State Street Corporation, and IT company Progress Software focused on something we don’t always see in an industry that leads with external media (and social media) relations: How social media has changed relationships and interactions with and among employees. To hear that the century-old company State Street is embracing such unlikely tools as Vine and Google Plus, was one thing; to hear that through use of social, total emails went down 29% was something even more. Rather than restricting social media use, these companies are looking for ways to make it easier for employees to participate, allowing for their internal social media programs to succeed.

Next, we heard about The Power of the Celebrity and CEO. One early point that stuck out is having celebrities, even celebrity executives, does not have to be all flash and glitz. “LinkedIn is the boring cocktail guest at the party,” said Katie Burke, director, media & analyst relations at marketing software provider HubSpot. Yet the company’s use of the LinkedIn Influencer program has been hugely successful. Other points centered on making the most of the celebrity’s time and connections such as New England Patriots player Matt Light’s use of his friendship with the Duck Dynasty family to help promote his foundation. Also, it’s important to be prepared to handle controversies appropriate to each situation namely, knowing when to tackle a situation head-on and when to back off. In the end, the celebrity’s own posts in the service of the organization need to seem unforced and in the celebrity’s own voice in order to have the most impact.

The third panel was on Regulated Industry, represented by financial services firms Liberty Mutual Insurance and Fidelity and healthcare/pharmaceutical companies Genzyme Corporation and Boston Children’s Hospital. What was striking about this panel is that the image of the organizations paralyzed by regulation is falling away. These same organizations are finding ways to be innovative and creative, while still dealing with regulations such as HIPAA and retention (the need for finserv organizations to retain every piece of communication, no matter how small). Liberty Mutual gave one example of fast, creative turnaround with the story of Olympic skier Heidi Kloser’s injury right before the 2014 Winter Olympics. In less than a week, Liberty Mutual was able to quickly create an ad featuring the injured skier with accompanying social content (a Boston.com article about the ad can be found here). One key to making things happen is to constantly educate people internally. All stakeholders – executive, legal, communications and more – need to know their part in the process and what they can and cannot do in order to keep things moving.

The penultimate panel was on paid media – How to Buy Across Platforms. To many in PR, this is still a new and strange land. The convergence of communications practices though is happening, and knowledge of paid media has earned its place in conversations about all social media programs. The panelists tried to frame the differences between “paid media” and “advertising,” with the key differentiator being that paid media includes active engagement rather than passive. A general consensus among the panelists was also that paid distribution is more targeted than traditional advertising, enhancing great content and community by locating paid content in the right place at the right time.

Finally, the day ended with a discussion of CPG, Retail and Hospitality. With a consumer focus and an easy-to-sell product, this industry set may seem a more natural fit to social but how do these brands go about it? As moderator Christine Koh of Boston Mamas put it, “Social media is a vast playground; how do you decide where to play?” The example grocery delivery provider Peapod set forth is that they have a lot of success with visual media, meaning that Instagram and Pinterest have been areas of focus. Another tactic that is important, as food manufacturer Kayem does, is to plan social content around planned media campaigns. The campaigns then feed on each other throughout various media and the brand speaks with one voice. The focus for Yasso yogurt was to make sure the brand’s attributes are defined (the joy of frozen treats, for example) and the voice carries through all content.

One final piece of advice, from Jarrod Cohen, social media marketing coordinator at Kayem Foods: “Take pictures of food: We’ll acknowledge it.”