I do not have the patience for the f4f spam approach. Following people just so they would follow me clogged my feed with all sorts of non-sense I really was not interested in. Trimmed my following list to just the folks I like and respect on Steemit, and it was like a breath of fresh air. Now I prefer the old fashioned way of growing by interacting with people and trying to turn out quality content. Works a lot better I believe!