By Zeba Fatima

Branding has much to do with how much consumers like you. Facebook usage is also much about who does and doesn't 'like' you. So is it logical to assume that the most 'liked' US retail industry Facebook pages are also the most liked US retail brands? Major retailers would like to believe that Facebook likes are a relevant measure of brand popularity as much as they would like to believe that brand popularity translates into retail sales at some point.

Thanks to the retail industry's obsession with measuring itself, now there is finally proof that 'likes' equal genuine liking and liking leads to sales. A recent study of Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy Facebook followers by the Internet marketing research company ComScore provided measurable proof that the time spent building a Brand presence on Facebook is cyber time well spent.

Best Buy 'likers' more likley to buy

The ComScore study found that consumers who have 'liked' the Wal-Mart Facebook page are 40% more likely to make a purchase from Wal-Mart than those who have don't 'like' Facebook. The friends of consumers who have liked the Wal-Mart Facebook page are 25% more likely to make a Wal-Mart purchase, presumably because of the word-of-cyber-mouth influence.

Those who 'like' Target are 57% more likely to buy from Target than those who don't 'like' Target. Facebook friends are not as easily influenced about Target, though. Only 8% of Facebook users are more likely to make a Target purchase after they see that their Facebook friend has "liked" Target.

Best Buy likers are 57% more likely to make a Best Buy buy and 34% of the friends of the Best Buy Facebook likers will make a Best Buy buy too.

Based on this research, what follows is a list of the US brands with significant retail operations that have the highest number of Facebook like-rs and the greatest possibility of seeing their Facebook fans at their cash registers. This list is arranged according to the number of 'likes' each company had received on Facebook as of January, 2012

Walt Disney
- 30.1 million Facebook Likes at the beginning of 2012
- 357,000 talking about this
- Walt Disney Facebook Page - www.facebook.com/Disney

Starbucks Coffee
- 26.8 million Facebook Likes at the beginning of 2012
- 202,000 people talking about this
- Starbucks Facebook Page - www.facebook.com/Starbucks

Converse
- 20.9 million Facebook Likes at the beginning of 2012
- 144,000 talking about this
- Converse Facebook Page -www.facebook.com/Converse

Victoria's Secret
- 16.5 million Facebook Likes at the beginning of 2012
- 155,000 people talking about this
- Victoria's Secret Facebook Page -www.VictoriasSecret.com

McDonald's
- 12.5 million Facebook Likes at the beginning of 2012
- 175,000 people talking about this
- McDonald's Facebook Page - www.facebook.com/mcdonalds

Wal-Mart
- 11.1 million Facebook Likes at the beginning of 2012
- 75,000 people talking about this
- Wal-Mart Facebook Page - www.facebook.com/WalMart

Zara
- 10.9 million Facebook Likes at the end of 2011
- 115,000 talking about this
- Zara Facebook Page - www.facebook.com/Zara

Burberry
- 10.2 million Facebook Likes at the beginning of 2012
- 160,000 people talking about this
- Burberry Facebook Page - www.facebook.com/Burberry

Levi's
- 9.7 million Likes at the beginning of 2012
- 107,000 talking about this