What's the best way to build strong network effects?

I imagine a lot of it happens in private FB groups already. I'm a member of Dynamite Circle, which is a private community of location independent entrepreneurs http://www.tropicalmba.com/innercircle/

I make a point of introducing myself to people online who are unlikely to become clients. You for instance. That's not altruism. It's curiosity. Learning about other people's business models, industries, unique challenges and goals -- even absorbing their phrases, vocabulary, and style -- prepares me for some other branding client later on. Being attuned to other people is the starting point of real life interactions, isn't it? Business networking is no different from wandering around from the car mechanic's to the coffee shop and striking up conversations with people along the way.

I built Canada's first (and one of the world's first) crowdfunding websites that attracted over 115,000 members without any paid customer acquisition and distributed over $3m to charities so I can certainly attest to the fact that sites that focus on creating positive outcomes are attractive to many people. There are however, several challenges to executing your idea well. Some of them are: Can it be truly helpful? Just like this site (Clarity), the challenge is for the answers to be genuinely helpful to the person in need. Giving bad advice or allowing negative commentary could be incredibly damaging to the psyche and overall well-being of your community. The potential cost associated with vetting the people able to provide help could be a significant barrier. Anonymity: I have built several applications that allow for anonymous messaging and have learned that people are reluctant to trust the promise of anonymity, so there are product challenges to getting the people to post sensitive information. These can be overcome but they are not without significant challenges. Peer Support is challenging: Providing users an open-ended mechanism who are going through something the ability to offer suggestions to others *sounds* like a good idea, but again, can be very damaging. Extensive moderation would likely be required. The best (i.e. potentially most helpful) service I've seen so far is a text-messaging based service for teens in crisis. Here's an article to it: http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/health-headlines/crisis-hotline-operators-reaching-out-to-teens-1-text-at-a-time-1.1217225 I think if you're going to build something, it should be mobile and figure out a way to sustain the business or service that supports paid staff or at the very least trained and vetted staff to be primarily responsible for helping individuals in need. Happy to talk this through with you if you are (or when you become) serious about pursuing this idea.

We have had good luck with both Survey Monkey and the survey tool built into Constant Contact

Hello Areriel, It can be hard to know where to start at beginning. What I suggest you do it to start a blog about the things you'd like to be doing. Then start building you following on the social media. Use Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to connect and engage with industry professionals. Go to industry events and connect with people. Make business cards of your blog and give it to them. Be interested in what they do and they will become interested in what you do. If you're interested for a call, I can teach you exactly how you can connect with industry professionals online and offline. Just send me in advance the city you'd like to work in (I guess that's LA) and more info of what you'd really want to do. This is my VIP link for a free call https://clarity.fm/martinzhel/inbound I will be glad to help you out.