Interesting observation regarding curation.
Services are available that allow users to auto-follow others to give out likes/votes. Usually, users follow curator group accounts, but other accounts may also get users following their votes.
The best way of getting noticed is to engage with other users', giving somewhat meaningful reactions to their posts and comments. On HIVE many challenges and contests are happening every single day. That is another way to get noticed.
Thank you very much for this good piece of information.