Know-How Exchange : Other

If you are going to hire an employee to lead the effort, then I'd ask:
1) Tell me about how you have done this before
2) Show me how you (personally) participate in social networks
3) Tell me what your plan would be to deliver on the implementation, and maturation of the social network.

You should also be in a position to tell the new hire:
1) What your business goals are (without describing the social network)
2) What your vision is

Out of that, I'd look for the new hire to tell me his / her recommended solution approach which could include:
- Reviews
- Forum
- Blog
- Blog Responses
- Participation in networks like Facebook, MySpace, etc.
- Etc.

If you are looking for some tools to do reviews with, and that might be easy to get off the ground with fast, I'd look at BazaarVoice or Buzzillions.

Joomla could do it yes, but I doubt you'd find the right person to put it all together for you unless you hired me (hey, its only bragging if you can't do it). Add on Community Builder and some other mods and coms, and you'd be there. But, I think you are looking for something more like facebook or Myspace.

Rather than hire a developer to re-invent the wheel, have you checked out: https://elgg.org/ ? This might fit the bill for you.

If you need someone to install and host it, feel free to ask.

Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network

Be sure you have developed a very clear and specific brief of exactly what you want. One of the biggest problems could turn out to be all the add-ons and change orders that blow your budget because you didn't include them in the original brief. And once you're into the development you won't want to go back and start over.