Remember when the word "like" was for Valley Girls? Um, now it's like Facebook's word.

Ever since creating The Doc blog on ZDNet, I've been challenged with how to connect original content with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Awkward, yes. But now we are able to get better data about how advertisers, media, social networks and humans interrelate.  Well, we have some interesting progress on that question. According to the e-tailing group's 13th Annual Mystery Shopping Study:

Technology is evolving at a frenetic pace not seen since the advent of the Internet. As social and sharing conventions become an important part of our culture, they are also pervading and becoming integrated within the online shopping experience. Notably, 83% of the sites in this study encourage shoppers to connect with their brands via one of the social media venues, up from just 60% last year. Nearly all of these merchants have a Facebook presence (96% vs. 85%) and 87% are established on Twitter vs. 73% last year. Commensurate with the overall escalation of video penetration, it makes sense that YouTube is hosting videos for 43% of this subset vs. 35% a year ago.

The breakout social tactic is the “like” button, not even in existence on ecommerce sites in 2009. Our 2010 study finds it integrated on 36% of the EG sites, with more joining the ranks every day. “Sharing” icons are still factors too, rising to 75% penetration from 67%.