If you are heading into 2026 without a clear social media strategy, this episode gives you a practical starting point. Christina May sits down with Stacy Holsinger of Steel Toe Communications to break down what worked in 2025 and what did not, especially for B2B businesses.

They cover why LinkedIn should be your foundation, how video and YouTube can drive long-term results, and how platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter (X) fit into the bigger picture. This episode is packed with straightforward, actionable advice to help you focus your efforts and stop wasting time on the wrong channels.

Christina May:

Stacey Holsinger:

Welcome back again. Okay, so you didn't go anywhere. I know, it's amazing when you do these, like, back to back to back. Yeah. So transparency we want to bring. Yeah. All right. So breakout moments for social for social media. Now that full transparency is is all you. Yeah. If anybody who is creeped on my socials knows unsubscribe when it comes to me.

00:02:45:45 - 00:03:08:50
Unknown
Like I know what we do with this data, the podcast. Except the podcast isn't really social media. I'm like, I don't mind content. I just mine the social side of it. Maybe that's like my origin story of my grandfather, like creeping up where I just you even talking about gives me the heebie jeebies. Like, no. So yeah.

00:03:08:50 - 00:03:31:33
Unknown
So I wanted to talk about so breakthrough moments for the, for, I guess, major platforms that B2B organizations use, which would be, LinkedIn. 100%. Yes. 100% F and I tell all my clients this all the time, if you're still brand new to social media and you're just getting on board now and you're a B2B, and that's okay.

00:03:31:38 - 00:03:57:59
Unknown
Yeah, that's okay. That's totally okay. We're not judging coming on. You know, your world of opportunities, your mind is going to be blown if you actually utilize this and stick to LinkedIn. LinkedIn has done wonders for my career in business. But B2B LinkedIn is where to be. Where to be. But I'm, sorry for that.

00:03:58:04 - 00:04:24:40
Unknown
So you want to start there if your resources and your time is limited. But what I'm seeing from LinkedIn, this year. So skilled trades if you're hiring for those positions. LinkedIn is not going to be your go to for that. So but any office positions estimators, project managers, CEOs, engineers that kind of anything there. We only post on LinkedIn.

00:04:24:41 - 00:04:46:23
Unknown
Yeah. We don't we don't use anything else anymore when it comes to hiring. Yeah. Only use LinkedIn. Yeah. Internships. I found so many great interns on there too. Speaking of internships, a lot of people don't know about a, platform called handshake. Do you know about them? I just learned about them this year, but it's, getting a lot of momentum.

00:04:46:23 - 00:05:16:59
Unknown
It's been around for a while, but it's building momentum. So handshake is basically connected to all the universities. It's a safe platform. So the interns that are looking for employers, they're not showing up on LinkedIn first. Interesting. They're going because they have their school account connected to handshake. So they have a profile there. So my best piece of advice is for, businesses to just set up a profile in handshake first, because they're going to learn about your company on the handshake.

00:05:16:59 - 00:05:43:09
Unknown
First. Then, after talking to a lot of my interns, they'll learn about your company first on a handshake. But the companies actually don't respond very well in handshake. So then they'll look you up on LinkedIn and apply through LinkedIn. So that's what I'm seeing. Okay. And that's verified not just through the interns, but I'm talking to a lot of, CTE, college professors and career counselors.

00:05:43:11 - 00:06:08:23
Unknown
Okay. So, I bet you a lot of people don't know about that. Yeah. And always still in person is great. The students want to meet you in person. So that's the feedback I'm getting there for. And do you think that's for? I mean, small businesses, a lot of times what I hear about internship programs, etc. and I even experienced it, they're incredible amount of work on the employer.

00:06:08:25 - 00:06:32:38
Unknown
Yes. Incredible amount of work on the employer. Yeah. You are not hiring an employee. So I know a lot of small businesses, you know, will get on the fence because of that. You know what? What advice do you have, for them? Well, right now, through my business, serving as a middle man. So different counties have different programs that can help you with their internship program, which is great.

00:06:32:52 - 00:06:50:06
Unknown
And some of them will even pay your interns and give them a stipend. So, like counties within your state? Yes. Okay. So Frederick County, I just learned, has one. I forget what it's called. I forgot. I unfortunately, we'll just have to put it in the show notes. Yeah. It's okay. We're human. We only live here and we don't know.

00:06:50:11 - 00:07:11:57
Unknown
I know it's fine. I started my apologies, started my internship program in Montgomery County, here in Maryland. And it's been going on for five years now. But a lot of business owners, they can't find the time because they all have different requirements. This one is 50 hours a week that you have to make sure you're keeping this interim busy.

00:07:12:02 - 00:07:39:57
Unknown
You know, teaching them, giving them research projects, things like that. So, over a five week period and then there's a giant graduation ceremony. So what I'm doing is, I'm partnering with various businesses in the contractor space and, doing the heavy load, you know, coordinating where they should go to learn about other small businesses. That's just one solution.

00:07:40:02 - 00:07:56:48
Unknown
Where was I going with that? No, no. You're good, you're good. So we're bringing it back about. I just asked a kind of a tangent question about, like, handshake, even though it's not social media, but it's tied to your social media. But you were you were highlighting that LinkedIn is such a great place in general for B2B, which I completely agree.

00:07:56:52 - 00:08:18:55
Unknown
Even the antisocial girl over here we use down quite a bit. But particularly when it comes to internships, which I know was a passion for you. Yeah. So that's that's one thing about LinkedIn. If you have a business development professional, you're thinking about putting that person out and about and attending every breakfast lunch and dinner.

00:08:18:59 - 00:08:44:24
Unknown
Right. But they, they need to be the face of your company online to is my personal opinion. Because I see a lot of people doing it and they're doing a really frickin good job at it. So yes. So think about networking on LinkedIn in person and digitally. Just make sure like if you trust that person to network with people over drinks, you should be able to trust what they're going to say online.

00:08:44:33 - 00:09:05:36
Unknown
Right? To network online. Yeah. You might have some guidelines, you know. Right. Or have a conversation about what to post, but they should definitely be showing up for you on LinkedIn and online. And I think to that point, to, I think that is a pause that comes to mind when businesses are thinking small businesses, especially thinking about social media.

00:09:05:36 - 00:09:34:51
Unknown
They're like either they don't have time for it because you're too busy running the business, right? Or you're having to have an outside agency or someone internally do your social. There's a trust there. And then what I would suggest, and what we have suggested to customers too, is if you can hire out the posts, do it, and then augment those posts with the spontaneous posts that come from inside your team.

00:09:34:51 - 00:09:58:10
Unknown
So the things that a company or agency can't, can't grab for you, and you can really put some guidelines together so that there's trust there. And, you know, you really want to encourage your employees to like that. I guess this is the biggest thing. If you're taking the time to post, have the people within your company like and share.

00:09:58:15 - 00:10:19:14
Unknown
It's the simplest thing you can possibly to to get reach. Yeah. And I can't tell you how hard that is to get. It is so. So I have some companies I work with where their employees are so involved and they're great and you love it. You can tell actually which company has a good called company culture by the social, by the socials.

00:10:19:14 - 00:10:39:38
Unknown
You really can. If they're sharing a ton of stuff about their company or even their coworkers, what they're working on or interacting online, you know, that's a great company culture. And then the other ones are just like quiet crickets. Yeah. Or you're like, begging for them, you know? Yep. Or sometimes you can tell the age of the company.

00:10:39:38 - 00:11:08:37
Unknown
So if you have a more older audience that's kind of quiet online. Yeah. You know, they're the more traditional breakfast lunch crowd. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So okay. Very good. Yeah. So oh the other tidbit. So every year they switch up their algorithm and everything like that. If you're an association or someone that runs company events on LinkedIn, they are rewarding comments first over your posts.

00:11:08:37 - 00:11:25:55
Unknown
So that means you have to promote your event at least three weeks out now. So if you log on to your LinkedIn today and you look at your feed, you'll see a post from three weeks ago. Two weeks ago. Been noticing that. Yeah. And it's so frustrating because I've it's not timely. No. And I've missed events because of that.

00:11:26:00 - 00:11:43:32
Unknown
And then I was like, maybe it's just me that I talk to a lot of people and they're all frustrated. So if your attendance is down, that's because you really need to step up your prep game on social media. Yes. Well, and if LinkedIn, if you're listening, change it because that just doesn't make any sense. It doesn't benefit anybody.

00:11:43:32 - 00:12:08:36
Unknown
Yeah. This year's been a hard hit for LinkedIn. My personal. Yeah. Agreed. So moving on to Facebook and Instagram. The biggest changes I've seen for those two it's a pay to play Instagram larger hit. Actually I I've been having a hard time with Instagram. Now we got to show up for skilled trades professionals on Instagram because there's a ton of influencers there.

00:12:08:41 - 00:12:28:10
Unknown
It's a hands on community, so they want to show off their work on what they're doing. So they're visually, visually appealing. Yes, video and photos are all about on Instagram, but like if you're a manufacturer or like we both have a tendency to work for what I call the boring businesses that don't get any love. Like none of what we do is sexy.

00:12:28:15 - 00:12:55:12
Unknown
Yeah, it just isn't. And it just doesn't make for it. There's only so many different ways to to try to make that content interesting. Yeah. And so if you already have that impediment working against you, it's just going to make it harder. I truly believe that it's just them. They need to take the leap and try more creative things, because put a file in blender.

00:12:55:12 - 00:13:23:24
Unknown
Yeah. There's so much talent there. I've got to tour so many manufacturing facilities and I'm like so impressed and blown away. And from guitar making. Oh yeah. Sheet metal. And like, yeah, you do the same thing day in and day out. But there's so many creative ideas that I can and I think, I think too, I think companies are a little hesitant to to show authenticity because it might come off as unprofessional.

00:13:23:29 - 00:13:43:34
Unknown
Yeah. Or they're afraid to brag, or they're afraid that their secret sauce is going to get exposed, but that there's not a lot of secrets, like from sales to business. I'm like, you're doing the same thing. Yeah. Like it's the people that are the people that make the difference. Yeah, it's it's the way we put unique ideas together.

00:13:43:34 - 00:14:05:36
Unknown
It's the authenticity is what makes it special. Definitely. Yeah. They're not going to get your secret sauce. But so yeah, definitely show up on Facebook and Instagram like they're still the top platforms, but it's a pay to play it. How would you change the audience? Because like, for instance, you know, LinkedIn, we all know business owners are there.

00:14:05:36 - 00:14:25:31
Unknown
But Facebook and Instagram, obviously a lot of what pushback that I hear for B2B is that that's a B2C thing. Why would I waste my time? You know, but that's also where your future potential employees could be. So, like, would you think about changing the audience? It's just more because of that, a little bit more casual. And it's recruitment focus.

00:14:25:33 - 00:14:40:54
Unknown
Yeah. We're not you know, we're not selling wage. We're not selling. No, no. It's just like this is a great place to work. And this is what you'll be working on. And these are the people you're going to be working with type of thing. Yeah. And I think that's an important distinction for people to know where it's like LinkedIn.

00:14:40:54 - 00:15:06:32
Unknown
We talk a little bit more about like what we do. We are selling more. Yeah. You're selling more on LinkedIn. Yeah. Yeah. And then YouTube. YouTube is huge. A lot of B2B people aren't utilizing that, you know? Oh my gosh. Also, can we just say for the people in the back they don't understand YouTube's not just search YouTube is a search engine.

00:15:06:37 - 00:15:31:19
Unknown
Okay. It you get more bonus for doing video and using YouTube than anything else other than like maybe your Google business profile with Google. Yeah. Like just going to say it for the people in the back. Yeah. And video last a long time. I mean I did a recruitment video so many years ago I think it was 2014.

00:15:31:24 - 00:15:53:35
Unknown
It's still up there. It generated it's probably at 400,000 views and it's generating anyone that wants to learn about an Hvac tech pushes knows about their company, and it pushes you right to their careers page. And it's been working. We're going on 11 years now so like and and that's a really good quality video. Like they have a whole production company.

00:15:53:40 - 00:16:19:29
Unknown
But I have had videos that are really crappy that we just scrapped or used with our phone that still did. So well. Yeah, that phone camera now is actually. Yeah, pretty good quality. You can you don't really have many excuses anymore, especially a newer iPhone. You can capture some really. And everything's going now. YouTube is different. But like for social everything's going native.

00:16:19:34 - 00:16:43:11
Unknown
You know, to not a horizontal format but vertical video format now and then YouTube is your horizontal. Yeah. Video format. Yeah. Any thoughts on shorts huge right now? That's why I start up my channel on short form video. But then when we did our podcast last year, the fourth year into our podcast, we used and we started experimenting.

00:16:43:16 - 00:17:04:23
Unknown
Yeah, experimenting with shorts and, we got a whole new audience. Most. Yeah. So you got to do shorts and clips. But the good thing is there's AI out there that can help you with all the above. Yeah. Oh, the days when we didn't have that and shorts are what, 30s or 30s minute. I think maybe something like that.

00:17:04:27 - 00:17:26:18
Unknown
So. And I can tell you my seven year old's obsessed with shorts. Like these kids just love watching shorts. So they're growing up on this stuff. Well, it's it's the new TV hour. I mean, you can, you can you can see that in the change of the entertainment industry and how we're delivering longer form content now. We're delivering things in shorts.

00:17:26:18 - 00:17:39:26
Unknown
We're it's it's really changing the definition of the media landscape for sure. So definitely YouTube's a big. Yep.

00:17:39:31 - 00:18:03:30
Unknown
Anybody left? What else. Yeah. Do we want to talk about? You know, the artist formerly known as Twitter? Yeah, that's why I said it that way. I haven't met one person that does not disagree with me on B2B, that Twitter is not that sad. Now we we've discontinued that actually, from our strategies. We don't even engage, there any longer.

00:18:03:35 - 00:18:27:01
Unknown
Just doesn't have this news, politics and sport. Correct. And it's it just doesn't have the staying power. That's not. And it's also you need to go where your audience is. I mean, that's just like the golden rule marking, right? Your audience in there. Yeah. They're not there most time or they're on all these other platforms. And I think maybe something you talk about too is a piece of advice you don't have to be on, on these platforms.

00:18:27:14 - 00:18:48:19
Unknown
I mean, you're listing them all off, right? But do one. Well, yeah. Instead of trying to do all of them terribly right. I mean, honestly, when they're starting out and then they just fail. Yeah. And if you talk to any marketing agency and they say you have to be on all these platforms, no, you don't read huge Red flag Run.

00:18:48:24 - 00:19:08:15
Unknown
I'm like, no, I just start on LinkedIn and then let's see how the contents go in. And if the contents flow in and we got a good system going, then let's push out more channels. Yep. Yeah. But no, no you always have like what I consider to be like your home channel. And then you know you can add 1 or 2 to that and that's probably it.

00:19:08:16 - 00:19:25:15
Unknown
You don't have to be everywhere and it depends on what your team does well too is when I say that's a big, big because I'm working with a sheetmetal contractor now and I had no idea where this was going to go. And they're giving me such great content. So a lot of people I have struggled, I struggle getting video from people.

00:19:25:17 - 00:19:46:29
Unknown
Oh, preach. Yeah. So but they're doing really well with that. So I'm, I'm just thinking, you know, you might want to consider TikTok here. Because a lot of a lot of what I'm learning time at all. Yeah. It is sheet metal industry. They start young to like 16. Yeah. They do welding. That is great.

00:19:46:34 - 00:20:09:47
Unknown
Audience for TikTok. So TikTok real quick on TikTok. So, I think under 3% of B2B companies use TikTok. So the organic reach is they're huge. So jump jump on board or get with someone that knows how to do it. And start getting those videos out because that's where you're going to get the most bang for your buck.

00:20:09:47 - 00:20:36:21
Unknown
I think the best advice I could say is just be cringe. It's okay. Be cringe. Everybody that was once cringe. Yeah, we are still cringe. I'm still current. I'm still going. We got we're going to be more guys. We're probably cringe for saying cringe right now. Oh, we are 100% cringe for saying cringe. Are you kidding? My niece right now is just like rolling her eyes if she's listening to this like, oh my God, when did you get old Aunt Christina?

00:20:36:22 - 00:21:00:25
Unknown
Yeah, but don't be that company. Just because TikTok is scary to you and you don't understand it doesn't mean that you like you don't want to get left behind. Because that generation's all over TikTok, and they're looking they're going to see the other contractor on there or the other business. I want to go work for them because they learned about them first.

00:21:00:25 - 00:21:25:08
Unknown
That's right. So, so well, real quick recap for everybody. So sounds like LinkedIn if you're just starting out, if you're doing nothing else, sounds like you want to start a LinkedIn. Yeah. And you know, all of the content you can sell on LinkedIn. You can talk about just about anything on LinkedIn. It's all game. Recruit or recruit or sell or educate or educate.

00:21:25:10 - 00:21:44:55
Unknown
Yeah, any of those. And then, you know, if you go and expand from there where it's appropriate for you. So if you do have like a B2C component to your business, you know, look at Facebook, look at Instagram, look at TikTok, like those are really viable options for you. But master one first. Yes. And talk to your team to see what they they.

00:21:44:55 - 00:22:05:00
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. See what they use. See what. Because if you can get your team on board, it will be successful for sure. Yeah. They have to be part of the process for sure. Yes. Always part of the process. All right. Cool. Well that wraps up. That wraps up what to do a good a good, moment for everyone to pick up and use in their business.

00:22:05:00 - 00:22:22:18
Unknown
So that's where you'll find this to at some point, right? Yeah. LinkedIn. Yeah. Except that's you. Yeah. Not me. Yeah. I'll be controlling the LinkedIn. She'll be she'll be cringing LinkedIn for me. All right. We'll see you next time.