When I get a followers lull, I look around communities for
   interesting people who have only a few followers.* 2, 3, 10
   followers.* I talk with them on the community.* If they're
   interesting to talk to, I send a request - but usually they
   friend-request me first!* They usually accept [I always accept
   them unless their profile pages looks fishy - like a spammer]
   and are very grateful. In other words; I make a new friend who
   is lonely. You can do the, "I'm awesome, follow me!" but you get
   more followers if somebody else says, "Hey, follow this guy -
   he's awesome!" and then they're not just followers - they're
   friends for life that you'll meet in other networks, other
   places.* I bump into people I made friends with years and years
   ago who say, "Wow, Ken, remember me?* You were one of my first
   followers way back when.* Thanks! And now look how far I've
   come!" No better feeling to me. I look to make friends with
   people that I hope to know for months, years, decades to come.*
   You never know where they'll pop up later on too.* It's pretty
   cool actually. My G+ is a poor example of reshares and likes and
   things because I've been in OUTPUT MODE on G+ for a long time
   now.* It's a dumping ground for my thoughts, rather than
   popularity gathering.** But yeah - you can do it.* And like you
   said - posting to communities is a great idea; it works.* I got
   a number of new friends through the "Thinkers" community for
   example; 'sometimes I'll share one of my 'deep thoughts' type
   things and they go ga-ga which is nice :P 'm also the kind of
   guy who sees everybody as my friend anyway.* If someone thinks
   of me as an enemy... well then I try that much harder for them
   to be my friend.* I dunno why.* Challenge I guess.