Have you received invitations to join online networking websites lately?

You may have heard these websites touted as the next big thing. People brag about having thousands of "links" on LinkedIn or Ryze, and we hear stories that members find jobs almost magically. But what really happens?

Back when job search sites such as Monster.com or Hotjobs.com were all the rage, people believed all they had to do was post their resume online, and they would be flooded with job offers. When their inbox remained dismally empty, doubts started creeping in. And then the dirty secret was revealed--that even the most successful of all job search websites, Monster, filled only 1.4% of all applications.* Folks started realizing that relying solely on job search websites was a fatal mistake.

So what are the statistics about online networking?

According to our multiple choice survey, only a fraction (6%) of respondents would trust, buy from, or hire someone who approached them via an online network such as Ryze.com or LinkedIn.com. 26% of respondents said they would wait for a phone contact before beginning to trust them, while 40% would wait for a face-to-face meeting. A full 46% said they would wait to hear from someone they know personally before they considered the person trustworthy.

Why is this so?

Networks have three features: quantity, quality and strength. Quantity is big your network is; quality is how powerful your contacts are; and strength is what these contacts will do for you. Online websites may be good for quantity; much less for quality, and even less for strength. Some disillusioned users have even started an active campaign to "unlink" themselves from such networks; and Nick Corcodilos, "Ask The Headhuner" creator, released a deliciously witty critique of online networking sites.

It seems, then, that online networking isn't enough on its own. People still want a recommendation from a trusted third party, or to meet you face-to-face, in order to trust you. That may be why the some of the biggest websites, such as Ryze, have started integrating live events into their offerings. Ecademy, on the other hand, started out with live events and added the online networking features afterwards. "Face to face events are the secret of successful networking, and of the referral-only growth of Ecademy", says Thomas Power, Chairman of Ecademy.

Of course, once you're at those events, it's up to you to make the connections.