and only a few followed back.

My best advice I can give you is to not just follow 4 follow, try and instead follow and comment on authors that share the same interests with you by checking in which communities they are active and by voting and commenting on their posts and you'll get some followers over time and it will take time but they'll be worth a lot more than those just following you cause you followed them.

Also discord and joining different communities is a good way to connect with others.