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@kwalker, the first thing you want to do is meet new people.

Someone has given you a great gift - delegated steem power. It means that for a time (I am not sure how long) you can upvote other peoples' posts and comments with a larger upvote.

Steem -

I recommend that you start finding posts that interest you and develop relationships with those bloggers.

If you want to learn more about Steem I recommend checking out the Steemit FAQ.

so does liking other posts and following and up-voting cost me anything?

It does not cost you any money, but it will decrease you voting power.

You can give 10 votes at 100% before your power is depleted. It takes about 24 hours to regain 20% of your voting power.

When you upvote you might see a vote slider like this

If you decrease the percentage then you can stretch out your votes, meaning you can give smaller votes to more people.

You can see your total voting power at the following link: https://steemnow.com/@kwalker

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