A writer laments that he has a huge Facebook following, but it doesn’t convert to readers of his book. From AdPulp:
Gregory Levey, communications professor and author of Shut Up, I’m Talking, says, “if my online fans can’t even grasp that the fan page they’ve joined is for a book, I’m not particularly optimistic that they’ll read the book in question – or any books at all, for that matter.”
Ad Age’s Simon Dumenco opines: “Facebook has become such a burden and a time-suck that they’re only able to devote a fraction of their shattered attention spans to it. They’re reacting to friends’ updates and clicking ‘like’ buttons and joining fan pages like Pavlov’s dogs — it’s becoming mechanical, thoughtless. The opposite of ‘engaged.'”
(Link: Yet Another Facebook Story: A Mile Wide But An Inch Deep)
After reading this I may just pull the plug on my Facebook account (though I know, like the Hotel California, Facebook doesn’t really let you leave).
Coffeehouse Junkie 
This is indeed a trend I’ve been noticing. It seems that “shoe leather” is still the main method of promoting anything.
Shoe leather promotions are invaluable. Nothing better than a real live person engaging directly with the audience. I guess I should add more context to blog posts because I’m not discouraging the use of social media as a promotional tool. An art director contacted me through Facebook and that “social media as a promotional tool = snake oil.” The art director’s comment over simplifies the issue. Social media is the tool I used to promote a new book. So far the book has surpassed the break-even point and is moving toward real revenue. The key to social media is an engaged audience. Without an engaged audience, horror stories like Prof. Levey exist. But I also think a little research from his publishing agent might have prevented such a situation. Also, different social media groups have different cultures. The Facebook culture is completely different from the Twitter culture. Knowing how to engage each culture effectively is crucial when using social media as a promo tool.