Your Business Needs an Opinion (Not a Controversy)
Staying neutral on social media feels like the safe option, but neutral isn't safe — it's just quiet, and quiet costs you in ways you never get to see itemised. Here's the difference between a professional opinion and a public row, plus the four-part format that lets you say something worth reading without starting one.
Dave Smith
# Your Business Needs an Opinion (Not a Controversy)
Ask a small business owner why their social media reads like a parish notice and you'll usually get the same answer, phrased slightly differently each time: "I don't want to put anyone off."
It's a reasonable instinct. You've got customers across every age group, every political stripe and every level of patience, and the internet has a well-documented habit of setting fire to businesses that say the wrong thing. So you play it straight down the middle. Product photo, opening hours, the occasional bank holiday reminder. Nothing anyone could possibly object to.
The belief underneath all that is: neutral is safe.
It isn't. Neutral isn't safe, it's just quiet. And quiet has its own cost, it's simply spread out thinly enough that you never get a single moment where you can point at it and say, there, that's what it cost me.
The thing you're actually avoiding
Here's where the reasoning goes wrong. "Having an opinion" and "wading into a row" have been mashed together into the same idea, and they're not remotely the same thing.
Nobody is suggesting your plumbing business needs a position on immigration policy. The opinion your customers want from you isn't political, it's professional. It's the view you've earned by doing the job for fifteen years and watching what works.
You already have dozens of these. You just don't think of them as opinions, because to you they're obvious:
- The extra you always recommend paying for, and the one that's a waste of money
- The thing everyone asks for that you genuinely think is a bad idea
- The industry standard you quietly ignore because you think it's rubbish
- The cheap option that's actually fine, despite what the trade tells people
- The mistake you see customers make over and over
None of these will get you cancelled. All of them are more interesting than your opening hours.
Why the safe version doesn't work
There's a practical problem with the neutral approach, and it's got nothing to do with bravery.
A post that could have been written by any business in your sector doesn't do anything. Not because people disagree with it, but because there's nothing in it to hold onto. "Quality service you can trust" is agreed with by everybody and remembered by nobody. It doesn't answer a question, doesn't settle an argument, doesn't tell anyone anything they didn't know when they started reading.
Whereas a post that says "most people overspend on this bit and underspend on that bit, and here's why" gives someone a reason to stop scrolling, and a reason to think of you when the moment comes. It also does something quietly powerful: it demonstrates you know enough to have a view. Anyone can claim expertise. Committing to a specific position is what expertise actually looks like from the outside.
The other thing worth saying plainly is that opinions filter. Some people will read your view on the cheap option and decide you're not for them. That's a good outcome. Those were the quotes you were going to spend an hour on and lose anyway, or the customers who'd have been unhappy from week one. Being clear about how you work costs you the wrong enquiries and wins you the right ones.
How to say something without starting a fight
The format that works is boringly simple, and it's the reason most professional opinions land fine.
State the view, then show your working. Not "underfloor heating is overrated", but "I'd think twice about underfloor heating in a house this age, and here's what I've seen go wrong." The reasoning is the bit that turns a hot take into useful advice. It's also the bit that makes disagreement productive rather than personal, because someone can push back on your reasoning without pushing back on you.
Aim it at the decision, not at a group of people. Criticise a practice, a product, a common approach. Never a type of customer, and never a named competitor. The moment it reads as a swipe at someone specific, you've stopped sharing expertise and started having a go.
Leave room for the exception. "Nine times out of ten I'd say no" is both more honest and harder to argue with than "never do this". You keep your credibility with the person whose situation is the tenth time.
Say it the way you'd say it at the counter. You've explained all of this out loud to a customer before, probably last week. You didn't hedge then. Write down roughly what you said.
If a post makes you slightly nervous to publish, that's usually the right level. If it makes you feel sick, you've drifted from professional opinion into something else, and you can just not post it. That option is always available.
Where to find yours
Don't sit down and try to think of an opinion. Look backwards instead.
Go through the last month of enquiries and find the moment you talked someone out of something. Think about the question you're tired of answering, because being tired of it means you've got a well-rehearsed answer. Remember the last time a customer arrived with an idea from somewhere else and you had to gently explain why it wouldn't work.
That conversation is your post. The hard part was never having the view — you've had it for years. The hard part is believing anyone wants to hear it.
They do. It's the only thing you can post that nobody else can copy.