The only time they use something like Hive is to post links to their other sites all over the post.

LOL. Funny because it's so true. This idea is similar to a 'premine' for the "influencers". The influencers came when Steem was $8 during peak hype. So many people upvoted their posts just because they were famous. It was really annoying seeing the whales upvote them by ridiculous amounts. Most are long gone now. I can't remember any who stayed but maybe I'm wrong.