The success of business-to-business (B2B) social media campaigns hinges on the social media messaging plan put in place. This research looked at how emojis and objective facts, as well as the source of the message (whether it was created by the company or by employees), affected the level of interaction on social media. The putative links were tested in four separate trials. The results showed that compared to firm-generated material, employee-generated content resulted in greater levels of social media involvement, including intents and behaviours. The fundamental processes via which the source of a message influences engagement on social media are trust based on content and trust based on interaction. In addition, we found that compared to firm-generated messages, employee-generated messages using emojis had a higher effect on consumer engagement. Lastly, there was no proof that include facts in social media posts increased interaction from customers. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.