You're using Mastodon incorrectly. If you put hashtags in your posts and comments, you will get lots of interaction because Mastodon users follow hashtags more

You're using Mastodon incorrectly. If you put hashtags in your posts and comments, you will get lots of interaction because Mastodon users follow hashtags more than people. This is especially important starting out because you won't have many people following you starting out, but if you use and follow hashtags, you are immediately immersed in conversations you are interested in. There are few people who I want to see all of their posts. All I want to see are their posts that are relevant to my interests. So instead of following people, follow hashtags and you will see lots of posts related to what you are interested in and very few posts you aren't interested in. By following hashtags instead of people, the signal to noise ratio is almost 100% signal. I'm following dozens of hashtags and only three people.