Chris, I was thinking that way a few weeks after I joined steemit. I changed strategy, I began to talk to people whoever wanted to talk to me. even when they just say thanks, I replied "you're welcome". I kept trying to reply any comment until they were a lil too many. Sometimes I had to wait a few hours sometimes 1 or 2 days later to answer a very simple comment. The people seemed to appreciate that. I hope that will help. One other thing, even though I have hundreds followers, only a few that would upvote my post. I would say faithfulness is rare both on line and off line. followed and upvoted