Social media marketing

I keep reading that social media is a way of marketing books. I see loads of ‘sales’ posts repeated day after day, the majority of which I scroll past. If it wasn’t my genre yesterday, it isn’t today. Do they generate sales? So far I’ve rarely posted a marketing link, except for Facebook. Too shy.

But then I got to wonder … is social media a way of marketing books? And if so, which is best?

Facebook: I think a couple of my followers saw FB posts and bought a copy. I’ll persist. It’s more interactive than most platforms.

Twitter: I really don’t think anyone buys from Twitter links. It’s often writers just doing a writers lift (though I’ve no idea how to do them) and. Is it actually generating sales. I don’t have enough followers anyway.

Instagram: can’t quite get my head around it to do it right.

Pinterest: I’ve done it (I think).

What do other writers do, especially with a debut novel, to get the word out?