Unfortunately we have a branding problem and many people think that steem is steemit. This is what needs to change.
I think it will eventually happen slowly through word of mouth and with the growing presence of Dapps. At this point most of the users won't even know about Steemit. That's kind of the end-game though, and maybe more could be done than only spreading the right information, but I wonder how do you brand something like Steem which is this ubiquitous thing, architecture that powers all these applications. Just thinking out loud, because I don't know much about branding :D
It is definitely an issue since steem is also the coin. We have massive confusion at this point and this is why I am pushing each dapp separately while also using the word steem as a tag. Branding is not my strong suit, but I know enough see the problem.