Hottest tip has to be this: Get involved

Writing your own posts is a given but leaving a thoughtful, relate to comment on someone's post is crucial. If you're looking to build a following, try commenting on posts that are about topics that you plan to write about.

That way, those who are following you will be interested in your post and be more likely to upvote you for it.

Bonus tip: don't bother with follow for follow. You'll miss tons of content that you would have liked and you're unlikely to get noticed as you'll be drowned out in all the posts by the 1000s of people they follow.

Hope you find this useful & best of luck with your Steemit adventure.