The launch of Facebook Timeline late last year was accompanied by a great deal of hoopla and no small amount of controversy. But the first month of Timeline has turned out to have some interesting results. Among other things, it has been good news for MySpace, the onetime Facebook rival. Now repositioned with focus on music, it has seen a big surge in use thanks to Timeline.

This is an outcome no one would have expected back when Facebook pushed MySpace aside as the leading "general purpose" social network. But the development underlines an increasingly rich social-networking ecosystem. For firms developing a presence in the social space, it is not just Facebook and Twitter.

Bands, Not Brands

As reported by Eric Eldon at TechCrunch, the initial rollout of Facebook Timeline at the end of 2011 was followed in January by an implementation for third-party apps. This allowed apps from the likes of Fab, Pinterest, and Yahoo News to post items directly to users' personal Timelines on Facebook.

But the most surprising development has been the effect on MySpace. At least, this may be surprising to those who remember the days when MySpace was the leading online social network. In those days, the space was dominated by fickle teenage early adopters. Like flocks of birds flying from one telephone wire to another, they deserted Friendster for MySpace. Then, they (mostly) deserted MySpace for a newer upstart called Facebook.

Meanwhile, the MySpace community had developed a particular affinity for music, and many bands established a presence there. A 2009 piece in Internet Retailer said--with a bit of a sneer--that MySpace had "a reputation for being the place for bands, not brands."

An End to Closed Gardens

This might make MySpace of less interest to most retailers. But MySpace had the good sense to recognize that there was a viable place for people more interested in bands than brands.

And Facebook has had the good sense to recognize that it has a bigger future as a public square than as a "closed garden." Much online hostility toward Facebook has been rooted in the suspicion that it sought to become the latter--to create a little online universe from which users would never stray to the broader Internet: a 1990s AOL for the new millennium.

Instead, Facebook seems to recognize that it is better to let users stray, but welcome them to return. Thus, it allowed its old rival to let users sign into MySpace and share via Facebook.

And this appears to be the future of online social networking. One size does not and cannot fit all, whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or any other single service. Mobile apps only make jumping around easier than ever. For companies that want to make the most of social, the lesson is that the social space is about brands and bands, and a host of other interests.

The task for IT leaders at midsized companies is to identify social options--probably more than one--that will help bring them and their customers together.

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.