My network is not the vast number of people I'm connected to on LinkedIn or Facebook or Twitter. This is inspired by a post a few weeks ago from my friend, Luis Suarez, Never Underestimate Your Innate Ability to Network Through Conversation.
My network is the people I converse with. Sure, these services help me communicate, but I can just as easily broadcast messages (like this blog post) or share the latest interesting links from elswhere. But that doesn't mean I am conversing with people. And without that conversation, those potential networking connections lay pretty fallow. They get just enough water to keep them alive, but no serious nourishment.
So, keep thinking and talking. And sure, share those funny Onion stories too. But let's keep talking.