Consider writing an introduction post. "Hello, I'm [this person], and I'm interested in [this and that]. I'll be posting about [these things], and I'm passionate about [something]." Tag it #introduction, along with other tags relevant to your interests. Check out what other people have written in their introduction for inspiration. Pin the introduction to your profile. Personally I never got around to writing one, but I'm pretty sure I would have had more followers if I did.
Write who you are in your bio - what can people expect if they follow you? Who are you? It doesn't need to disclose your true identity, but people follow other people on Mastodon, so it's good to make it look a bit personal.
Tag a relevant a.gup.pe. The group will boost your post to all its followers, making your post visible on more instances even if you don't have followers there yet. If you asked this on Mastodon, you might for example tag @[email protected] and @[email protected], though neither are unfortunately very big. At least your post is likely to get pushed to the largest instances, and some people who are interested might see it in their feeds.
Throw in some relevant hashtags. Some Mastodon clients will hide them a bit if they're at the end of the post.
Search for content, follow relevant people when you see them. It takes a bit of time, but gradually you'll expand your network and get momentum. If you're in a small instance, you might search for relevant hashtag at a more central hub (like mastodon.social) or a more specialized one (like sciences.social if you're into social sciences)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

https://nathanlesage.github.io/academics-on-mastodon/