Dude . . . holy crap there is a ton of great info here. I have to bookmark this thing for reference later.

I'd say another thing to do is not to underestimate the value of a well placed and thoughtful comment. I've gained followers and followed people because of responses in the comments section.

Don't ask for a "follow for follow" or a "Vote for vote"
Don't spam your articles on unrelated posts
Have fun! And get to know the platform first. It can be daunting in the beginning, shoot, it still is for me sometimes.
Don't be afraid to ask questions about the post you're reading . . authors love to get people talking. And questions are the best way.
Use the 50/50 Post method when upvoting your post. The conversion rate is better than if you would use the 100% option.

All of these things I learned from other members. Nothing is an original idea lol, and that's the cool thing about the community. Oh yea . . . about this post. It is straight