• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, September 1, 2011

Web site pages displaying the Twitter share button get seven times the social media mentions compared with those that do not, according to a study released Thursday.

The BrightEdge SocialShare Analysis September report finds 53.6% of the largest 10,000 sites on the Web display some sort of social link or share button on their home page, up from 52.8% in late July.

Nearly half of the largest 10,000 sites on the Web still don't display any kind of social sharing links or buttons.

Analyzing the data, BrightEdge tapped about 4 million tweets selected at random. Its Social Share Engine determined if the tweets carried shared information and then identified whether the content was shared using tools, buttons, links or other methods. Jim Yu, CEO of BrightEdge, said the report suggests buttons drive mentions and activities through the social channel.

Buttons supporting Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ gained meaningful increases in use, compared with the previous month, but two social platforms seem to dominate mind share. About 50.3% of the world's largest sites have Facebook plug-ins, such as the "Like" button and links to Fan pages on their home page, up from 49.5, sequentially. Buttons and links for Twitter are seen on 42.5%, up from 42.4%, sequentially.

Google+ now sits on about 8.1%, up from 7.3% of sites, sequentially. LinkedIn remains unchanged at 4.0%.

Earlier this week, Google said it would allow +1 buttons shared in circles. Beginning next week, the +1 button will allow Google+ users to share content from around the Internet with friends on the social network. The +1 button, which launched in June, now appears on more than a million sites, with more than 4 billion daily views, according to Google.

Companies can put these buttons on Web sites to share content, but not everyone is using them. A report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project reveals that nearly two-thirds of adults on the Internet also use social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter.

32% of boomers, 50-64, said they use a social networking site on a typical day, up 20% from the previous year, according to Pew, but a study released Tuesday from SocialCode suggests adults, mainly women, age 50+ are reluctant to click on the Facebook "Like" button.