Welcome to the platform, @xoxomichelle!

The good news is, there's no wrong way to use Steemit. You can use it to help others, discover yourself, share your creative side, or just enjoy the musings and posts of other people. You may be small now, but if you keep at it, you'll grow slowly and steadily.

As a new user ('minnow' as they're called around here), I highly recommend you pick one or two niches or interests to focus on when you're starting out. Look at the 'Trending' tab up top, and you can see the popularity of categories. You can use that information to pick tags with higher visibility so you attract more eyeballs, and try to post regularly (3-5 posts per week) so potential followers can see your efforts--they're more likely to subscribe if they see regular output. :)

Don't fall for scams that show up in the comments: there are bots that will offer to resteem your post to thousands of followers for a small fee, or offer dozens of upvotes for some SBD (Steem-Backed Dollars), or to follow you if you follow them. Ignore them and build your own community naturally. Browse the different categories, find posts by interesting/helpful people, follow them, leave meaningful comments on their work (avoid stuff like 'Nice post!' or 'I agree!' which looks like spam; take the time to explain what you liked or didn't like in the post and how it relates to you in some way), and most important of all: don't give up!

Your 'Follow' list is the most important tool you have on Steemit, so make sure you're filling your feed with people who post things interesting to you, and don't be afraid to start slow: follow a few people, build a relationship with them, then branch out to a few others.

I find the Steem World tool extremely helpful for seeing my vote power and other bits of behind-the-scenes info. It's free, and you can see your account by going to http://steemworld.org/@xoxomichelle

If you want to see somebody else's, just replace the stuff after the @ symbol with a different username (so using @modernzorker would show you my page, for instance). :)

Using this to keep track of voting power is very important, because as a new user, you have very little ability to influence others. (15 Steem Power isn't enough boost a single post, even at 100% voting power). Each 100% upvote you cast costs you 2% of your voting power, and you earn roughly 20% of your overall vote power back every 24 hours. Once you've earned enough Steem Power to influence, a good guideline is to try and keep your voting power above 80% so it refills to maximum every day. :)

Anyway, this is a huge comment, and I hope it helps. I've followed you, so hopefully I can watch you grow on the platform, but don't feel you have to follow me back. I write about geeky stuff like video games and comic books, so I'm certainly not for everybody. :D

Welcome to the party, and get ready for a long journey. You've taken the first step, so don't stop now. :)