On Linkedin Connections = Reach = Power. More connections means you can see more for free.
It also means you get found more.
Early Linkedin users didn't know the culture. There was no punishment for approaching strangers. So people could aggressively grow their networks. There were also no limits to invitations in the early days.
Look at Zynga, they totally abused sign-ups via Facebook. Zynga used aggressive tactics to become gaming gorillas. Zynga were first users.
First users can be businesses. Don't forget that! When Facebook changed the rules, they simply increased the value of Zynga's position. The created a barrier of defence for Zynga.
Early users find it easy to pick up a massive following. First users have many dormant followers, who they can unfollow, but who will never unfollow back, adding further to perceived status. Regardless of what you feel or say, the majority of people map connections to influence.
In the the Q&A section, a user asks "How do we catch up with people with massive following/repins". Simple answer - you don't.
Ben Silbermann Keynote Address at Alt Summit from ALT Summit on Vimeo.
Empire Avenue - It’s a social game and as such exhibits poor game design - Many such systems emulate this. Great games give loopholes to help later users to catch up and keep things interesting. See PowerGrid as an awesome example. In Social Networks, you cannot catch an early user. See this quote from Michael Todd
"Empire Avenue. I have a lot of eaves (Over 180 million in my main account and around another 700 million in 4 others) and a lot more each day too. Still far from too late as we are just starting but the earlier you get into it the more influence you will have"
Actually in EA you can catch someone. It just takes real cash.
