Yes, you do. Let me just say the word "Color". Well, except it's not effort, it's connections.

If you think about it - you had to do pretty well in social/communication “subject” to earn those connections. Just showing an effort to get connections without actually providing any value will lead you nowhere as well

Ok, you got me on the connections part. Not sure what you mean by "Color" though, I must be out of the loop.