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Am a new user but I study this deeply ,
I understand your concern
Am explaining As far I understand about the workflow of of steemit followers
actually they are trying to create a community.
Suppose you create a group of 10 steemit user and
show 9 others users list and encourage this user to follow that 9 user.
But question is why this user will follow the others 9.
you give an offer that if he follow those 9 user you will ensure that the others 9 will follow that user .
you give the same offer to all the 10 users.
what happens now. each and everyone is follow each and everyone of this group. each user get 9 followers .
same principle use this steemit follower user.
Now the big question is WHAT IS THERE BENEFIT????
They are showing the member list to follow.they can show particular user to everyone so that this particular user get too much follower.

I think now you are clear that those followers are real.

Now another question is, How much effective those followers are?
To be honest its really depends on situation . For me they are not 100% effective but yes Now my post get more Upvote then previous.
if I have 10 followers and among them 5% are upvote my post. other hand If i have 250 followers and 2% among them are upvote my post. then this 2% is grater then previous 5%

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