If you haven’t heard the news, MySpace has purchased iLike, the “most popular music service on Facebook” (according to their About page).
This makes a lot of sense, though it may cause some controversy.
MySpace has positioned itself as the entertainment-focused social network. You go there to listen to music, get show updates, view trailers, and interact with personalities, not necessarily friends. Facebook, in comparison, is about primarily connecting with people you know (or knew), not brands.
Artists have been moving from MySpace to Facebook en masse lately, maintaining a profile on each site, but using them differently in many cases. Why? It relates back to the networks themselves…
MySpace, at it’s heart, is about a push model of social interaction.
Create page –> Find people who you think may be interested –> Add them as a friend –> Comment and share info about your music –> Repeat
Facebook is about a distinctly pull model of social interaction.
Create fan page (or group) –> People find you –> You post content that appears in their updates/on their wall –> They share on your behalf –> Repeat
iLike is a hybrid. The service itself is about the push, but artists can use it to spread their message and extend their virtual reach, enhancing their pull.
Strategically, the acquisition was a great move for MySpace for a few reasons. Now it’s even easier to syndicate content across multiple social networks (important when your users “home” is a network that is NOT your own), and the buy helps MySpace strengthen their positioning as THE entertainment-focused social network.