I would say to be honest my good man, don't use the bot's, i know why everyone does, its hard to get limelight yeah i get it, but it really undermines the whole point of this platform to begin with.

The best thing to do is focusing on generating good quality content or interesting material and your following should organically come after that.

Now don't me wrong, i don't necessarily produce "quality content" my steemit is more of just a platform for me sound-boarding through metaphor, but, i do produce content from time to time if i am in the mood for writing.

And generally? it does pretty badly, because no one sees it, but sometimes you have to pound the pavement a bit, the challenge is, your stuff is getting lost in other peoples feeds, what i would suggest, when you drop a new article or piece of content, reach out and drop a line to your core supporters, relevantly, contextually, and then let them know you have just dropped something new yourself, 9 times out 10 they will give you a vote back.

Focus on quality content always, but also focus on quality engagement, those followers should not be a cash cow, they should be your friends :)

Nice to meet you.