Hello Hilary,
pardon my late reply. I hope you've made yourself comfortable on the platform by now.
If your concerns still apply, my two cents would be something like this: Educate yourself on the basic mechanisms and functionalities of the steem blockchain. This information is made available by many good posts, searchable on this very platform. I've touch onto some of this in my own posts.
When you know how the platform works, start directing more of your search for answers inwards, rather than outward on the established steem-icons. The entire idea of a decentralized platform is that there should be no elite, no rulers to dictate your participation and behavior. You, yourself have the power to impact and try form it as you see best. For me the cornerstone to build upon is the fight for freedom of expression. Something that is under serious attacks, also on this platform.
As for raising attention, one could learn to understand and manipulate common human psyche. Play on peoples’ greed, appeal to fame and authority. However, as a human with a healthy dose of empathy I doubt you would feel very good about it. Instead I would choose to embrace a topic of my own interest. You would have a good time creating your posts and attract likeminded people with a genuine interest.
I hope you have a great day!