So what are the juicy benefits of SMLP?

• Pulling segmented social channels together to increase awareness and exposure
• Adding legitimacy to help differentiate the brand-owned pages & user generated pages
• Sending more traffic to the brand website (Facebook Fan Page can be positioned as the “hub” if traffic is not a concern)
• Allowing brands to track the number of social media visitors from various channels
• Giving the tech-savvy social media users more context around the brand’s approach to social media and engagement policy
• Enabling more creative display of the brand’s social media assets and content

With the key benefits in mind, a well designed SMLP can effectively integrate the brand’s social media assets into the corporate website. Below are some examples of brand’s SMLP with quick assessments-

What I like about it - Best Buy uses the tagline “Everyone’s talking” which truly reflects how the organization approaches social media. The landing page not only aggregates their Twelpforce, Forums, YouTube channel and Geek Squad Blog, it also puts Rating & Reviews in the forefront and encourages customers to express new ideas on IDEAX. The page follows a simple design with a primary goal of meeting user needs, two thumbs up on the layout and user experience.

What could be improved – To provide easier navigation from the home page; To ensure relevant social networks link back to this landing page! (e.g. the YouTube channel still links back to the home page)

What I like about it – AT&T pulls all of their social media presence together and divides them into 6 grids based on the target audiences. The SMLP has a permanent place under “About AT&T” which yields higher page rank. And the right-hand-side panel shows the latest 5 tweets from their Twitter handles.

What could be improved – More description for each user group to help people decide how to “continue the conversation.” Shorter disclaimer using user-friendly language, it’s for SOCIAL MEDIA visitors after all. Better visuals plus a stronger call-to-action than “Continue the conversation.”

What I like about it - Jeep tapped into the “dangerous” territory of social media, aka user-generated-content (UGC) and embraces those content on their brand website. The top right “Share” button enables user to contribute  videos/photos to this SMLP via their personal YT or Flickr account. Additional groups and links at the footer allow Jeep owners to expand their connections and networks.

What could be improved – Less cluttered layout with bigger text font. Frequent attention from the webmaster to fix format compatibility and broken links and so on. (Since they’ve been calling up YouTube and Flickr APIs, those codes require constant maintenance.)

What I like about it – Microsoft demonstrates how it harnesses social media in a completely transparent and innovative way. Unlike other brand SMLPs, Microsoft actually positions this a social media hub where viewers can see what other customers are saying about Windows 7 in real-time. It pulls and displays content tagged with Windows 7 from various social networks, from Twitter, YouTube to blogger and their Facebook Fan Page, .  In addition, although there is a manual moderation process in place, they do include the good soundbites as well as the the comments that don’t put Windows 7 in the best light. The About Page on the site did a good job explaining their moderation policy.

What could be improved – To allow users actually “Join the conversation” on site by leveraging Twitter API/Facebook Connect, etc. To share  more insights around the extracting and curating feature with other 3rd party companies, so more brands can embrace the idea of  a social media hub.

In conclusion, I think many companies need a social media landing page to integrate the offsite social media activities into their .com business. However, there isn’t a one-size fits all solution when it comes to design & functionalities, the page should be optimized based on the brand’s social media goals and their social media user base. So what is your POV on social media landing pages? Did you spot any other brand examples?