I just read an article by Sara Sheridan on authors/writers and using social media. As I read it I was shocked at how adverse other authors were to setting up a blog, a twitter account or facebook page in order to increase their notoriety. At uni I did a class that specifically revolved around online social media and the publishing sector. And in another we looked at the idea of discoverability.
Discoverabilty is pretty much the most important thing that a author/writer needs to have. If someone can’t find your work then they can’t read or buy it. And the people in this article seem to not only complain that they are losing readership, but they seem adverse to even try to gain new readers. Its like they are intentionally trying to cripple themselves. You can’t afford to stop putting in effort on your novel once you finish writing it. Publishing houses now have to expectation that you have social media skills because, well sometimes they don’t.
As an author you need to put yourself out there. And you need to do it before you publish your first book. The more attention you can garner the better it will sell.
Stephanie Haggarty 
This is all very true but I’d bet for a lot of authors, especially over the age of 35-40, the idea might just be very daunting. I put it off until a few weeks ago because of all the stuff I had to figure out lol. Now I’m glad I did it and am having fun with it, but my writer friends basically had to force me to do it haha.
I know it might be challenging for some not familiar with social media or the internet. But every person on facebook, twitter etc had come from not knowing what it was. All anyone needs is practice.