I think the main thing what's running the success of Steemit is obviously money which you can earn either by posting blogs, comments or by voting.
Second most important thing is that it's easy to use with any browser even if it's on blockchain so average internet user can signup fastly and start posting blogs. This way it is becoming mainstream and it's not only available on some application like openbazaar for example. I'm afraid Akasha would be available only at Mist browser which wouldn't be good.
"Steem power" is also an interesting concept because it makes Steemit users do some kind of savings which in return gives them more power when it comes to voting.
Those three features i would like to see in the Akasha as well! Anyone knows if any of these features will be integrated? Any other features that you know of?
What i would like to add to Steemit and i hope Akasha will do it are g+, twitter and facebook buttons. Social signals are very important for SEO and for the blog network SE rankings are high priority.