I've been here a week and managed about 100 followers. Here's what I did:
I found good content provider who has similar interests as myself, and looked at his followers and who he is following. I carefully clicked on each on and followed them all myself.
(I asked myself, if a stranger started following me and engaging in comments and upvotes, would I be upset? Naw. Like neighbors you don't know baking a pie for you)
After a lot of clicking, I began monitoring my feed and upvoting, offering genuine comments with NO requests to follow me. I found many people responding to my comments and I was careful to reply and upvote.
I watched my followers jump from single digits, to 20 to 50 to 80 to over 100 over the course of the week.
I've been careful not to discriminate too much based on reputation, but on content alone. Mostly minnows like myself, but as they grow, I grow. :-) Trying to keep this as 'organic' as possible.
This has been my experience so far. Any comments or criticisism are appreciated, I'm still learning, like many people here. Steem on! @ironshield
Write a post about it! With details and analytics