Yesterday we touched upon the post-modern struggle of parents friending their kids on Facebook. But you can actually use this connection to your advantage, especially where holidays are concerned; USA Today explored how social media is playing a role this Mother’s Day as e-companies start touting contests and embeddable goodies like blog widgets to digitally laud your mom.

Among the websites marketing digital love to mothers is E*Trade, which rolled out a talking baby ad campaign promoting mother’s day social media messages. SpaFinder is also giving discounts to anyone who tweets the best mother’s day story (sure to be a success as spas and mothers go together like social media and privacy concerns). There’s even a mom/baby photo contest at online magazine iVillage — finally, a chance to be proud of your baby photos!

Even better news: If you bank on social media, you can save on the estimated $142 the average American will spend on their mother this year for the holiday, which is a 5 percent spike from last year. That’s a lot of cards.