i think depending on whether you are a long time steemit user or just your typical minnow the answer to this question could vary significantly.
if you are like me very small on the proverbial food chain and can find your way into a nice community of active people you can if your creative enough work your way up the chain by posting regularly. initially i dont expect to see much progress in the way of author rewards but keeping people engaged and trying to start open ended discussions will increase my reputation 1st and foremost at a steady pace.
once i have a reputation that does not scream sardine the next thing that hopefully will happen is my follower base will increase if i continue to stay active.
then hopefully people will comment more often and reply back to my comments and that is when i will in theory start seeing an uptick in author rewards which leads to higher steempower.
its not any 1 thing that gets me votes its a combination of all aspects of steemit being active having a healthy follower train and contributing interesting things in post and comment form will transform any steemit account into a super power.
once you are at that stage what you choose to do with a larger steempower can help shape your frequency of post rewards
I have been on Steemit for over two years, I have cashed out and that is the main reason my SP is so low, I did get to have it over 500. As for followers I have over 2,000, I don't interact much and I think most of these followers are either bots or new members who are just following everybody they can, I guess most of them are inactive now. Most of the few votes I do get come from some bot or other.