Followers can be bought. A reputation has to be built one interaction at a time.

A number next to your name can be bought, inflated or inherited, which is why it tells you so little. What people say about you when you are absent gets assembled slowly, out of whether you did what you said, how you treated somebody with nothing to offer, whether you were honest when it cost you. No shortcut exists into that, because it is made of individual events.

Take the next small interaction seriously, since those are the units. Do the thing you said you would do by the day you said it. Keep promises written down somewhere, because breaking them is usually forgetfulness.