So you have followed every Tom Dick and Harry. Your following list reads 100’s, may be thousands, but none of them has followed you back. So your followers list is a miserable 2-digit, may be even 1-digit integer.
Instead of the serious high reputation whales you were targeting, the only follow-backs you get are from your same lot, 25-score newbie’s just joined.
Why doesn’t the 65+ reputation whale fall for your bait? Why won’t they follow back? You wonder. Well. Look no further than the simple fact that you are a bad follower. Period.
Let’s pretend I am the 65+ reputation score big whale with lots of steem power to pay your rent with just one upvote! And you somehow happen to follow me.
I see you on my followers list, but for every daily post I make, I never see you comment or even at the very least, upvote my posts, for the sake, not even of money - I mean, your vote is worth $0.01 at best – but for the sake of, God knows what!?
Why would I, for goodness sake, follow you back? In fact the really serious High reputation, abundant steem power whales even MUTE you so that your posts/comments never show in their active platforms.
So the question is: What does it mean to be a Good Follower
To understand what it means to be a good follower, start by asking yourself: “Why do you want followers?” Whatever your motive, it has along its trail, the desire to earn.
And that is perfectly okay. That is our advantage as Steemitians
Ideally this is how the trail involving followers occurs: each time you post on steemit, your post will be filtered out of the composite bunch of posts coming in all the time. It will consequently show up in the select feed of your follower.
Your follower will easily, and quickly access it. Of course he will then read it, and share in your writing. That should be the most important thing.
But then it is also likely that he or she will upvote you, may be even further resteem your post for the benefit of his/her own followers, and by extension, your benefaction as it will widen the reach of your post
This is how it profits you the followed author.
Does it answer the question of what it means to be a good follower? The answer is no, but at least it should have by now given you a good background for appreciating the need to be a good follower
So are you following anybody? Yes. And yes. You have been following every person whose post shows up in the various tags.
But the question is, and this is really important. Indeed, most important: when was the last time you actually even just read what those you are following wrote?
Do you even know that you have a feed to which their posts show? each time they post?
So if you are not reading their posts, much less engaging in informative commentary, of what value are you to the authors, to those you claim to follow?
How do you profit them, either in terms of the sheer pleasure that they are being read or even in terms of Dollars earned if you upvoted them, never mind that you command a $0.01 upvote value?
So what is the secret? Simple: if you want quality high curating followers, you need to start being a good follower.
The truth is, whatever the time you log in to your account to start posting, chances are somebody you are following has already posted.
So why not make visiting Your feed the first thing you do? Go there, read the posts of those you are following, start constructive discussions, if you are the first to comment, or join in the discussion, if you are a little late for the party.
The author of the post will read your comments. Nothing is more rewarding to serious members of the steemit community, than reading and sharing in the commentary of thoughts, ideas….in their posts.
And if in your commentary you should prove useful, why would not that person follow you back? Yes, the quickest way to know whether or not someone is worth following is to read their comments!
So again, you might need to make sure your comment is worth, otherwise you are better only upvoting the post, never mind that with a low 25 or thereabouts’ reputation, you offer very little value, but at least the commitment, the interest, is demonstrated. And that is enough to win you a follower!
This is not a guarantee, by the way, that you will get followers using this etiquette, as there are many other contributing factors, but at least it will put you out into the pool of those worth following.
There you have it, beginners/minnows, start growing your list of Followers. Climb above your 25 reputation cap!