Henry Ford has a great quote on this:

"If I asked users what they wanted they would say a faster horse"

Surveys are a lot more effective. The best part is that you can be very vague about your next steps and find out what the users think of the different aspects. That way, you can modify the feature to what they want and what you want without asking them.

Well, I don't think that social approach for solving usability issues is a good idea. The only you can get applying it is a total misconception. Just take a look on to what "solutions" Nature has came using genetic algorithm :-)