Hey @japhofin8or, the time is 18:56 at the moment, thank you for asking. We hope to be able to help as many as new content creators on Steemit as we can. The birth of Steemit is still young, and has a lot of potential to grow as a community.
Regarding your question: With the variety and amount of content posted on a daily base, many followers can loose track who they follow and who posts what. Loyalty can only grow and exist once there is enough transparency to trust someone, especially when money is involved. The current engagement seems to us, as a "benefit of the doubt, here is my 2 cents", or "here is a chance for curation rewards" kind of engagement. This can be really problematic and challenging. The only real advice we can give you is to stay in touch with a part of your audience on a daily base. Friendship for the long term can be more valuable than a loyal follower in our opinion.
Delegating to a Steemian can be a great help for them. It can boost them morally, but they can also spread their voice in multiple ways. More up-votes, more potential to connect and engage with other Steemians and so on.
Hope this helped.
RE: This will make you create awesome engaging content.