On-boarding, user-friendly and engagement initiatives need to be looked at for sure. I know there's a twitter thing going but many don't have it. I don't, or Facebook for that matter, so I think something else is required. Also, having people land on the trending page full of posts about hive...Hmm, not legit.
I would rather see people land on a page that was full of communities, a synopsis of each, so people could go where they wanted based on their interests...You know, almost like a directory. I mentioned this to Asher a while back who urged me to do a post on it...I'm reluctant though, because I'm really a bit of a hive dumb-ass.
If I was new and landed on that trending page I'd bounce out within seconds. It looks shit, although the peakd one isn't too bad, and all those hive-posts...Enough already.
Anyway, the sooner I never have to hear the word steem again, or read another post about it the better. Then the smart people here can focus on hive as you mention and knuckleheads like me can have a better platform.