No, you don't need to spam at all and it will not help you on Steemit.
I got all my followers without asking for a single follow or spam.
I can also show you a user with over 12,000 followers they got from asking for a follow for a follow and their posts still only make .20-.30 sbd per post.
Why?
Because the followers they have don't care about their content and don't upvote them.
People that follow you because they want to read your content are real followers and you don't get them by begging and spamming.