It also examined people's propensity to search online for those retail brands after visiting Facebook.

For the 12 weeks ending June 18, what Hitwise found was that among the retail brands most actively marketing on Facebook -- most of them were in fashion, it noted -- consumers were as much as 54 percent more likely to search for those firms online after a visit to Facebook than they normally would be on Google, Yahoo! or Bing.

Even without any Facebook fans, however, retailers still receive an average of 62,000 visits from Facebook each month, Goad pointed out.

Along with announcing those results, Hitwise on Thursday also launched a new service in partnership with social media firm Techlightenment to help brands acquire new Facebook fans and then analyze their behaviors online.

Proceed with Caution