First I must apologize for any following typos. Typing this out on my mobile, from a very shaky train, during my morning commute. So far the experience is good.
I remember when I first heard of Facebook in 2004. I was in college at the time, my school had just been enabled for students from that school to join the website. Not many people knew of it at the time, not even everyone at my school. It did start to catch on like wild fire though through the college crowds.
Today I feel the same way about Steemit as I remember feeling about Facebook back then. It was new, there was a bit of an exclusivity about it if you were in the know. Navigation wasn't great, there was no mobile app. We're lacking communities or subreddits. Would we call them substeemits?
People I knew who found out about Facebook in many instances did so by being asked, "are you on Facebook?" One way to get more people visiting Steemit is to share links to posts on Steemit. When I first saw links to posts on this website called Medium, I was like whats that? Never heard of this site before. After a few linked posts that I read, I figured out it was a blogging platform. So it might be obvious, but Steemit just needs more exposure. You don't have sell anyone to death on it, but just like you asking someone if they are on Facebook, you can offer up that opportunity for others to be exposed and to check it out.
If you were on Facebook, or any social media platform, back in the very early days, it would be very interesting to hear your comparisons!