I follow A LOT of people because I love to read my feed. I spend about an hour everyday reading catching up with the feed. It's a great way to get the pulse of Steemit for the day. Sure, the trending page is good too but it's mostly for what's popular that day.
The FEED is the steemit you dream of.
Why not make it amazing?
I am yet to hear people being proud of their feed. Setting up a great feed is like sowing the best curation seeds. These are the people you'll support the most. You'll see those people again and again and always be able to upvote when they put up something good and never miss anything. It's the way you help steemit be the steemit you WANT.
LATER EDIT: 
This is really cool side-effect as you follow more people and help people to get better you'll eventually see them grow and their post do good and YOUR curation rewards will grow.
Of course, you can follow already popular people too and maybe get more rewards but I always have my eyes on the next breakout star :)
So, I came up with this rule: I will always follow just as many people as they follow me. BUT not the same people, just people I find and like. I think that's a good rule that keeps me humble.
Who do I follow? I like a variety of stuff because I think that's how you stay ahead and grow. I'm looking always for people who make an effort in their posts, for good writing for interesting content, for well research content. I'm really really happy when I find someone new and good.
[PS: I am 11 people short to follow so if you think you are the right kind of person please leave a comment with your favorite Harry Potter character and I'll check you out! ]
Follow more people than you think you can handle
Whenever I check someone's posts, I also look at how many people they follow. I noticed that a lot of successful steemers don't follow a lot of people. I don't understand why not.
If you are a successful CONTENT CREATOR and you don't follow over 100 people you are not pulling your weight. Sorry, but you're missing the point. It's about really helping the community and discovering new people.
THEN helping them get ahead.
But also, a bigger feed is MORE FUN!. Why miss out on that?
I'm sure if you look, there are a ton of good people to follow with more joining every day.
My main point is this: a good feed will vastly improve your experience on steemit. Try it out, engage with people, comment and upvote what you like.
You'll grow.
They'll grow.
Steemit wil grow.
My feed is your feed.
I want to end by giving you a little tip. Something I do when I'm feeling like trying something new.
You can scroll thorough other people's feed! I love this feature.
Again, it's like seeing steemit through their eyes and their interest.
Try it out :)
till next time,
r.