Mike's one piece of advice for new Mastodon users - dive into that Federated column and follow ANYONE and EVERYONE who looks like they've posted anything at all interesting to you. Just hammer the button. There's no penalty for mistakes. Go wild.
Later, when your Home timeline is buzzing, go in and unfollow people you decide you're not enjoying so much now.
Then do that again a few times. Then some more. Forever.
@mike 😎
I do think your advice may fit for the other users (not reading everything). However, I tend to think as well that you should add recommendations how to choose your instance.
@publicvoit I think it's easy to overload people with ideas, I still think that's the best single thing for new users to do.
My main intention for that post in the long term is pinning it to my profile new users to my instance, so I'm going to kind of assume they've got as far as picking one at that point.
Server run by the main developers of the project 
It is not focused on any particular niche interest - everyone is welcome as long as you follow our code of conduct!
@publicvoit well, I do say it's advice for new users, which is where most people seem to have trouble getting a start.
If you've found your groove, ignore me!