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There are many initiatives to promote Steemit and in the past I was a big fan of them.
Every initiative that helps the STEEM blockchain grow, is a good thing, right?
So "more people" = "more success" - is that really the case?

The primary way these initiatives are promoting Steemit can be summed up with the slogan:
*"Get rewarded for using Steemit!"*
That's a nice idea, but it is also a flat out lie.

Let me explain, how Social Media works:

* 5% of all people are content creators
* 5% of all people write a comment from time to time
* 90% of people are passive consumers

This is the case since the beginning of Social Media. You can observe this on every Facebook page.
Knowing this, I still thought, that it may be a good idea to bring in more people, because we need consumers who read our articles, just to realize, that this won't work out.
These people are lured into Steemit with the idea, that they will earn money through social media.
The fact of the matter is, that they won't.
Earning Steem through content curation - passive upvoting - is only something a whale can do.
So unless the newly won consumer buys in with huge amounts of Steem and becomes a whale himself, this consumer won't earn anything here. That's a fact.
What makes things worse though is, that "we" have sold them the dream of earning money and have now created a customer, who is deeply disappointed by our service. 
He will leave Steemit and tell everyone, that it's a scam.  
We just created negative word-of-mouth propaganda.

## What we really need to promote...
I want to propose a different approach to Steemit marketing.
First we have to get perfectly clear, that **Steemit is an elite network**.
The way it works at the moment, Steemit is for the 5% of content creators.
These content creators will also read and comment on other niches (and also may sometimes write content outside their own niche).
It's not possible to re-educate the 90% of consumers into becoming content creators themselves. This is a fairy tale.
What you get, when doing so, is a pile of shitty content (useless memes etc) and basically nothing, real content creators will pay for with their voting power. This is the road to disappointment.

So after becoming clear, what "we" really are, we have basically 2 choices:
1. Define our niche. Be the network from and for content creators. Get the 5-10% and be happy.
or in case we still believe, that more consumers are needed:
2. Bring them in with a different approach and not via the monetary rewards. Steemit is also about decentralization, learning about blockchain technology and cryptocurrency and a great community of people, who are devoted to free speech and different niches, where you can read quality stuff, that you won't be able to read elsewhere. 

The one thing we shouldn't do, is to *mix them up*.
Let's do either 1 *or* 2 - whatever you prefer. Let's be clear and authentic. 

Knowing that STEEM is much more than just the Steemit app, and with the introduction of SMTs later this year (or next year), there may be other ways to earn Steem, that may also create possibilities for consumers - but at the time being, let us please focus on what we can provide and stop initiatives that "get more people to Steemit" with the wrong selling points.
Your goals may be well meant, but are hurting the platform more, than you may think.