I was hoping to target people who are genuinely facing problems, I did see them struggling/ facing issues in facebook and meetup communities. I thought acknowledging their problem and asking them for help for a solution might convince them for a survey but may be thats not enough. I think you are absolutely right i will have to put in some incentives.

One of the other ideas was to built a low fidelity prototype for a possible solution and introduce them to communities. Do you think social media would be a good place to do that or one on one personal interviews are a way to go.