Listen to this article
The power of the Internet and any position of influence lies in the fact that you receive compounded interest on the number of users who participate in your "network of influence." Not only do you gain the power of the people who initially participate in your economy, but you also benefit from the connections they have. You can perpetuate this influence by 'gamifying' the experience, making it competitive among ecosystem members in its own right. You can achieve some degree of participation through intrinsic rewards, such as a point system or badges of honor. Still, you can amplify this power even further if the rewards manifest in the real world as tangible discounts, gifts, or experiences.
One of the key factors contributing to the prevalence of iPhones was the invention of iMessage, which not only enhanced the sharing aspect with better photo quality than MMS but also introduced subtle color differentiation, distinguishing between green and blue for non-iPhone and iPhone users, respectively. This seems innocuous on first glance, but what we have here is sexual selection at its finest. No affluent, trendy, or "high status" girl would want to interact with someone who could not afford an iPhone, which was cleverly branded as a premium product. Snapchat took a similar approach in its path to success, infiltrating Greek life first and leveraging the built-in status of the University (its primary age demographic) to drive adoption.
TikTok, the latest player in the game, took the path of collecting data through AI, figuring out and mapping real-world connections to each other through their hidden link tracking, which cannot be removed if a video is shared. It is no longer listed as a referral parameter but is now built into the link. So, any video you share will link you to the person you share it with, whether on or off the platform. Brilliant. Additionally, the low commitment of short videos that endlessly scroll continues to feed information and content to users, and takes a seemingly low barrier to entry to begin their viewing time. TikTok also implements two strictly unique properties that I haven't seen too much in the wild:
1) A form of lottery system in sharing new users to people to get them hooked into creating content, and 'random jumps' between topics.
This leads to point 2) Videos between niches often share similar keywords that the AI is scraping from every video. So you get contextually different video with the perfect segue: shared language, just like how the mind makes associations.
See Metcalfe's Law and Reed's Law (Wikipedia) for more about Network Effects.
Reddit is another excellent example of the benefits of user-generated content. The subreddits that branch into specific topics and niches take the global user base and break it down into smaller units that, in turn, bring value by uniting people around particular issues. That, and their ingenious, for its time, commenting system with up and down votes, brings the benefit of showing the top value-added comments at the top of the comment section.
Further progress and growth of your network then take on a rhizomatic form, when it involves non-linear value-added growth to the network. Nodes, associations, and the creativity of the network create a structure that seems to emerge from within and between the network users. Then, exponential connections take root and drive the whole system forward.
Another great way to position yourself is to have a large body of work prepared and ready before you "blow up". Having a catalog of videos or written prose on the Internet for specific topics before you strike a cord with the present societal focus is paramount to becoming an "overnight success." You're ready waiting for the spirit of the times to throw your hat in the ring and reap all the rewards that have been stacking and accumulating over time with little public regard until now. Then, with the value added of forever content, you can ride that wave of success until the cows come home.