How can we help steemit grow?

Steemit is a social media / blogging platform operating on block chain technology, rewarding its users when posting original content and actively participate in the community.
The slogan more often used is ‘Come for the rewards, stay for the community’.
It has become very clear to me that it does take time and lots of effort to be rewarded.
The main reason I joined in the first place, was because I am struggling to understand what a 'block chain' is all about and especially in blogging :) *_{What can I say? I am tech-curious..}

In steemit, if you devote time and effort, you gain value. The result is overwhelming and stimulating. You want to contribute more.
To contribute better.
To be a part of the steemit’s evolvement and to help steemit grow!

When a user joins steemit, three things can happen.

1. The user tries to find his/her way around steemit, may manage to make a random (or more) posts, does not understand what happens and what the fuss is all about and walks away (This applies probably to the 90% of the 546.587 users of steemit as per statistics by penguinpablo)

2. The user spends a great deal of his time searching, following, finds great articles and reads the FAQs. Decides to give it a try and sticks around, bringing and getting value from steem

3. The user is already keen on cryptocurrencies, on block chain technology and understands the potential. The user brings expertise and very well knows how to make the most of steem.

In the last 2 months I have seen a great increase in steemit users, surpassing half a million users, climbing up many positions in Alexa and appearing very often in search results due to its original and usually well-crafted content!

This is great, but is it enough?

Is there anything that we can do to bring more value to steemit? To become a part of its evolvement?

Participate

Well, being active is certainly one of the most important things we can do. Think of great content and take the time to create valuable & informative posts.

Bring more people to steemit.

Yes, it is important to bring more people in steemit. But it is also important to educate them, to provide them with guidance and information, to help them contribute with their knowledge and expertise.

I do not agree with just ‘bring more people over here’, I do not want to see comments like “help me sir, follow me” or “upvote for upvote, follow for follow”. Steem is not instagram (#followforfollow) nor equivalent with any other social media. It is superior and as such, it deserves to evolve as such. And this can be achieved only through its members and their contribution.

Some interesting stats by @penguinpablo
The steemit users are 546.587 (1 January 2018) but the active users are 45547 (only 8.33%)
Out of the 8% active users, each is posting an average of 3 posts per day (including comments)

Use strategies for bringing back inactive steemit members.

All social media platforms have inactive members, but they do their best into bringing members back to their medium.
Facebook sends updates in our email, reminding us of messages received, invites us to visit popular posts, wish people for their birthday, reminds us of who has added us as a friends and so on..
Twitter and instagram are on the same track. Emailing us all the time to enter their platform, so that we do not miss their notifications etc
What can we do for ‘luring’ some of the non active users to return?
They have taken the first step, having created an account and furthermore they retain some SP which is unused!
If we use some of marketing terminology, it is important to create not only new but also help retain & create loyal members. Steemit should help retain the existing members and of course acquire new members.

How can we increase members’ retention & loyalty?

• Mail Marketing
  Users have created their account and provided steemit with an email address. Are these data available to steemit? Can they be used by steemit for creating an email strategy?

• Good Members’ Support
  A new member should clearly understand where to find information, where to find assistance, feel welcome and be able to understand the first steps. It took me a long time to understand some basic things and perhaps more people feel overwhelmed.
  Clear instructions, an updated user guide and perhaps a help desk should be considered.

• Steemit Updates
  What are the goals of steemit? What have its creators planned? What will happen in the future of steemit?
  Is there information for this? How can we be informed? This will help further motivate members and we can also help ‘spread the word’ through relevant posts, social media updates etc.

_{These some very random thoughts which I wanted to share and ask your opinion, especially from steemians who have been here longer than me.
Thank you for reading, I appreciate your comments}