The secrets of branding aren't all that secret at this point: do a thing - do it well - do it a lot - let people know.
The celebrity niche strategy is another way of letting people know. A good example is GEICO. They've been using a maximum reach strategy to run feel-good commercials for years, psychologically manipulating us into feeling positive about them, maybe even cheerful - and they're an insurance company!
That's how to use social media. Be positive, be memorable, be interesting - and be it a lot - everywhere. It's the same as any other branding strategy.
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Selling merch isn't anything on it's own, it's just one more revenue stream, one more tool for brand awareness. As for examples, they're are all over the place, you just have to look. YouTube is full of these success stories.
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Viral posts or videos are typically not all that helpful. The problem is that your core demographic - your tribe - may be significantly underrepresented, or worse, absent altogether. It's better to get 1k views from your target audience (which may result in sales) than a million from people who don't care (which won't sell anything).
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Substack and Patreon are modern subscription services for writers. The problem always seem to be discoverability, which Amazon used to be pretty good at. But we don't have to rely on publishers or platforms for that service anymore. We have social media, which gives us control. It also allows us to use these platforms as additional revenue streams, as well as an extension of our brand awareness strategy.
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If we follow the rules (best practices), we don't have to worry about walking on eggshells.
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As for being introverted, the days of the reclusive artist creating their work in private and then having a publisher take it from there are over. Creatives have to sell themselves now. Fortunately, there are a lot of channels to do this through, and few of them require actual face-time, in person or on camera.
Our only limitation is our imagination.
