I don't know anything about finance, but I know some of the problems I have getting friends and family to give Hive a serious look, as well as a few issues I have with it.
I've burned the topic of crypto anything. Once blockchain is introduced the conversation is effectively over. I feel like while the over all buzz around crypto is still growing but there's also a fatigue spreading. People who have decided they just don't care are tired of hearing about it so maybe setting up a way to enter that stores their keys and gives them a simple password until they're ready to take off the training wheels would be a possible solution to onboard those folks.
I've mentioned this before, and it's gotten significantly better over the last few months (and I know more is coming), but it's a mobile world and Hive is pc oriented. I have friends and family that don't even own a computer. If they can't do it on their phone, it's not worth doing ...unless there's a judge calling the shots or something of that nature, but I digress. I can't get full access to some stuff on Hive without hive keychain and it's not available on iPhone. I have hivesigner, which seems to unlock additional layers, but even I, a user since 2016, is still finding ways to struggle for a purely enjoyable experience. There's just still not an app for most things, here, much less an app for everything, and I see that as significant in my own surroundings.
Disclaimer: I'm not tech savvy, or really into social media curation or consumption, so I'm likely over looking something, but I don't really connect with the vast community here on an individual level. I'm connected to the spirit of Hive in it's entirety, but there are only a few focused things I do here and those things rarely require me to interact with the community, although when I do everyone is awesome (more on that below), but the point is I find it very difficult to get anyone interested. Facebook is "free", it's insanely easy to get on, virtually impossible to get out of, and everyone they know is already there.
Everyone is too nice here. I love it, but it's boring as hell. We're fucking censorship resistant and have absolutely zero interesting controversy. There's a sad fact we optimists sometimes have trouble facing, and that's the world is garbage, too. I think a lot of the pull for most of us here is that it's a refuge from all the bs in the world where we can look to, and build a brighter future, but that only satiates part of our nature. My brother rants on Facebook, looking down his nose from the top of the heap, without taking notice he's in the same landfill, daily. TBH, I'd probably block him if he was posting here, but I'd still like to get him here so he can see the other stuff he's missing out on, and maybe get him onboard with looking/moving forward. Maybe we need a dump for the flies to buzz around?
There's really no pull for the average FB, Twitter, etc. user here. There are all kinds of cool tools, but nothing that gets them into anyone's hands. I found Steem because I was temp banned from FB and ticked off. The fact it was blockchain based, at a time when I was really getting confident there was a lot to watch in the space, made it an easy sell. The fact I got some steem for signing up didn't hurt, either. The point is there's no party here for people who just want to have fun. Everyone is driven or focused. It's not a particularly inviting environment to people who aren't already into crypto, finance, investing, or one of the various games or play projects scattered about.
Most of these things seem like marketing issues to me. The mobile stuff, aside (although I do think it's a factor here), there just aren't enough people here. Maybe we could fund a contest or something for a marketing strategy. Maybe fund our top communities to recruit from parallel groups from other social media with enticing prizes/bonuses/rewards for signing up. I know (aggroed) you're trying to make a place here where any idiot can set up a shop, but you're lacking idiots to set up shops. :D
I think that's about all I have at the moment. I hope it's helpful.
As an afterthought... In addition to a lack of marketing, we aren't marketing to the right people. I listen to several podcasts, wherein the hosts or guests commonly complain about issues Hive resolves or has the potential to better navigate. We should be reaching out to journalists, media personalities and influencers who already have significant followings to bring with them. We could overthrow Patreon in a few years once fans/followers realize they can support their favorite publishers with upvotes instead of donations and I'm sure it'll be easier to sell fans on staking a few bucks (they can retrieve later if they want) to power upvotes than than to just give money they'll never see again. I've tried to put it out on Twitter to some of the people I follow and I've gotten a little attention but the guy I'm talking to is too busy doing his job and pursuing his passion to give Hive a close enough look to realize how useful he would find it. How do I incentivize that guy, with 70K+ followers that fund him and his work regularly, to just start linking his post to the account I created for him and gave him the keys to, or post on Dapplr, along side Twitter?