Department stores, restaurants, and mom-and-pop shops are all on Facebook, according to a recent survey by Shop.org. The survey found that one-fourth of retailers created a Facebook page this year.

It is a well-timed move, considering a record 71% of consumers reported they will spend at least a portion of their holiday shopping dollars online, according to a Deloitte study. More than 20% reported that they plan to shop almost entirely online.

Businesses have recently taken advantage of Facebook's Pages application, introduced last fall, which enables small businesses to carve out space on Facebook with a few easy clicks, an article in DMNews reported. Companies such as Victoria's Secret, Starbucks, Apple and JCPenney all have Facebook pages, according to the report.

However, the success of Facebooks retail pages vary greatly, depending on the brand. A page by Victoria's Secret for its PINK campaign has about 630,000 fans and thousands of wall comments. A page by JCPenney advertising back to school items only had about 422 fans.

Part of the challenge is figuring out what will work for the company and the product, said Kent Schoen, a product marketing manager at Facebook, in the DMNews report. For some companies, a standalone page works well, others need videos and links. Others might need an active discussion board, Schoen said.

Other's see Facebook Pages as a way to update their brand for a younger demographic. Bob Evans, which sells retail food products in addition to being a chain restaurant, is hiring students from Ohio University to expand their brand to online. The students will build a Bob Evans brand name on sites like Facebook and Twitter, the Akron Beacon Journal reported today.

''It's not about just throwing together a page because everyone else is doing it. But we want to get the brand out there, to let everyone know that older people love our foods, but younger people do, too,'' said Stephanie Busack, who manages digital marketing for Bob Evans, in the Journal article. ''It's about getting that raw feedback, an out-of-the-box site, and learning how to launch our business into that next step.''

Other major restaurants have also turned to Facebook, including McDonald's, which has more than 380,000 fans on its Facebook page. Pizza Hut is also innovating in Facebook as well by launching an application that lets customers order pizza through Facebook, according to the Journal story.

The key to a good page is to engage users, said Schoen, in the DMNews story. “The important thing for marketers to understand is that there has to be a reason for people to [participate].”