I think 99% of my followers came from my commenting. I also focus predominantly on "new articles" and introduceyourself posts. I think this maximizes follower gains.
New people like to connect with other new people! I stay away from trending because no one will see my comments on those articles. I'll get lost.
Indeed I tend to keep an eye on the 'new' feed rather than the 'trending' feed. This allowed me to discover some good posts that I would have missed otherwise.
Totally agreed!