I was responding to another poster's lament that he couldn't seem to find an audience and decided I would make it a post of my own.
The question (of how to gather an audience for our own personal brand of crap :-) is; How do we evolve steemit into a useful platform of interaction?
Here are some ideas.
Spend some of your online time looking for and upvoting any that are sincerely trying to provide content REGARDLESS of whether you agree with their views.
Spend some of your online time looking for and resteeming any that are "in your wheelhouse" (that you are personally interested in and that you think those that follow you should be interested in).
Spend some of your online time looking for and downvote or flag any posts/replies that you think are just looking for a vote/follow/handout but provide little/no value in exchange or that you can tell haven't engaged with the actual content.
Upvote anyone that ever replies to your post (whether you agree with their views or not) and downvote/flag any if they are just doing it for a return upvote/follow.
Do not follow anyone without browsing their blog (comments and replies too) a little to see if they actually post anything of value TO YOU.
Do not encourage others to follow you for any other reason than that they are interested in what YOU have to say.
Reply to other's posts ONLY to honestly and SINCERELY encourage, provide PERTINENT feedback, constructive criticism and NEVER for the purpose of coercing their return upvote, follow, etc.
Forgot to add:
And then just write whatever it is that is important for you to say and let the chips fall where they may.