The best strategy is what you have just done for my profile. You visited my post and left me a nice comment. Connecting with people directly is the best way because Steemit doesn't notify the person you are following.

I see you are a real person, who doesn't spam me or act like a robot, and I can tell from your comment that you really looked and read my post. Thank you. I wish you the best of success on Steemit. I have followed you and upvoted this post, but Steemit will not show you who followed you. You will have to manually check your Followers list to confirm that I am there. Best wishes