You have observed things well in this blockchain. but I don't really understand this statement...
Unlike social media where notifications are given when someone follows you, blog chains doesn't.
I think you mean other social medias that they make use of add friends instead but talking about follow like in case of twitter, it works just like the chain works. People can't see your post in their feed unless they follow you back.
What I mean is, like Facebook there is a place you click to see people who just followed you and to see if you have followed them back so you can see them in your feeds, you can also see how many mutual friends you have to know how well you guys would relate, but here you gain recognition is by engaging in people’s post.
If you follow them, there is not place for people to see that you just followed them, the only things is that your account name would be added to their followers list which in most case might be more than a hundred or two, who has the time to start searching through his or her list ?.
This is why I said, you have to stand out of the crowd by engaging and making your presence felt