Social media may seem like fruitcake to some business owners.  So let’s go ahead and bake one!

Creating a social media calendar is like making fruit cake.  To many it seems like a conglomeration of strange fruits, nuts, and cake.  It stares at you with festive, colorful components, but you still don’t know what’s in it or how it comes to be this surprisingly delicious treat.

What is fruitcake?  Fruitcake is a mix of many ingredients, both sour and sweet.  Its origin dates to Ancient Rome, has been served to the aristocracy for centuries, and has even traveled to space.

To make a good fruitcake, you need to gather the proper ingredients – and there are a lot of ingredients!  Raisins, currants, cranberries, blueberries, cherries, apricots, candied ginger, and citrus zest are combined with rum and macerated overnight.

There are also many social networking sites that are available to create your social content calendar.  Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr, and Instagram are just a few recognized by Ebiz as this season’s most popular outlets.  They each have unique functions and can be combined to create an effective outreach plan.  Determine which are most beneficial to your business and allow them to soak in rum together to bring out their full benefits.

To prepare your fruitcake, combine the rum soaked fruit mixture with sugar, butter, apple juice, and spices.  These ingredients are boiled, simmered, cooled, and refrigerated for two days.  The dry ingredients and eggs are added until completely integrated, and then the nuts are folded in.  The batter is now ready to bake.

So once you have selected which social networking sites are best for your business, organize them with content that will effectively work together.  Gather images, information, and links you’d like to share and decide which content will be best delivered through the chosen platforms.  Share Instagram images on Facebook, tweet recipes on Pinterest through Twitter, and post an informational blog on LinkedIn.  A content calendar strategically brings all the components together to communicate in a fun and functional way.

Once the fruitcake has been baked and has cooled, it’s placed in an airtight container.  It can be spritzed every couple of days to keep it fresh and stored for weeks or longer.  Those gifted with this fruitcake are indeed very fortunate to enjoy your creation.