When considering social media marketing for your small-to-medium business, make sure you get the opinion of experts!

No… not us.

We’ve never claimed to be experts. Under appreciated geniuses, maybe. But not experts.

The experts you should be listening to aren’t folks who claim to be experts… or gurus… or masters… of social media or anything else. It’s your fellow small business owners.

Thankfully, Pagemodo recently surveyed some of them. What they learned about SMBs and Facebook should interest you. Among their findings:

• 47% of businesses say that they see a significant amount of traffic go to their business website from their Facebook profile
• 43% say their Facebook page generates more traffic than their website
• 48.1% report that a portion of the new website visitors convert into customers

Clearly small businesses are using their Facebook pages well. Their top strategies? Highlighting basic info about their business, sharing photos and videos, having conversations with customers, providing customer support, and holding contests and giveaways.

Also interesting is that even of the businesses who did NOT see a sales increase from their efforts, only 1.6% plan to decrease their use of Facebook.

Why? Because even if those fans don’t convert immediately to sales, they’re likely to hang around.

Yesterday, we pointed out that another survey found 76% of respondents have never “unliked” a page. As long as they still “like” you, there’s a chance to convert them. (And, as we’ve also mentioned, they’re more likely to recommend you to their friends and family.)

So. Take it from the real experts… not some social media “guru”, but small business owners just like you.

Facebook works for small businesses… if small businesses work at Facebook.