By Amberly Dressler, from ‘Net Features – http://bit.ly/18QHH96

In the race to win brands’ advertising dollars, social media networks are pushing out updates faster than consumers can hit like, retweet or pin. 

In the last few weeks alone, Pinterest improved its guided search, Twitter offered group messaging and Facebook cleaned up its newsfeed (again). Website Magazine details these many updates in our Social Media Mavens channel as well in our new feature, Social Snapshot. To help brands stay even further abreast of what they need to do to make the most of their social pages and efforts, here are four social media updates to make right now.

1. Add a CTA on Facebook

No good piece of marketing is complete without a call-to-action (CTA) and a Facebook page is no different. Page administrators can now easily add a CTA near the cover photo on their business pages. They can select from the following “buttons”: book now, contact us, use app, play game, shop now, sign up and watch video. While Facebook does report the number of actions occurring from the chosen CTAs (page admins will see them to the right of their cover photos), marketers can also direct users to a unique URL that has further tracking, such as one created through Google Analytics’ Campaign URL Builder.

2. Add Social Profiles to Google’s Knowledge Graph

Companies can now add their social profile information to the Google Knowledge panel in some Web searches (what shows off to the right of a search engine results page). The knowledge panels prominently display a brand’s social profile information, which makes connecting with a brand on the various social networks that much easier for consumers. It might also aid in other brands’ efforts to find a company’s Twitter handle, for example, to include them in a tweet, as finding handles on the network itself can sometimes be cumbersome. By making it easier for everyone to find social media accounts, a brand may benefit from increased exposure.

Social media managers may need the help of their Web developer to implement this update, but Google makes it easy for them to format and publish the proper markup code.

3. Get Twitter Cards

Another update that will likely need some assistance from a Web developer to execute, Twitter Cards are a surefire way to increase engagement. Once the metatags for Twitter Cards are added to a Web page (and a few other steps are followed), rich photos, videos and other media experiences will automatically be pulled from the URL that a company is sharing. The additional media will display below the tweet. This is a must-do update because photos and videos are proven to increase favorites, retweets and other positive actions on the network. Here’s an example of a Summary Card with Large Image.

4. Download the Pin It Button for Chrome

As the most-used Web browser, Chrome is not only popular but it’s also pretty smart. The wide variety of extensions available on the browser make it even smarter for Web professionals. The Pin It Button for Chrome, in particular, is a must download for social media managers. This extension makes sharing relevant and engaging content on Pinterest a breeze. This is because not all websites that have great content, have great sharing tools. Even when sites have their own Pin It button, for example, they don’t always render a photo to include in the Pin, and Pinterest is all about the photo. When signed in on a Pinterest account, the Pin It extension will automatically create a Pin (without having to go to Pinterest.com) and then users can alter the text or which board he or she wants to pin to. Overall, sharing content with a brand’s Pinterest followers just got easier, as the extension follows the user from site to site and he or she can share at will and more regularly. In other words, Pinterest is no longer an afterthought.