Best Twitter practices, in infographic form

I was talking yesterday with a couple of Bleacher Report interns and they asked about best practices for Twitter. They didn’t use those words, but we were discussing ways to build one’s “brand,” and they asked how Twitter fits into that project.

This is a fun part of the job for me. Lucky B/R interns sometimes get to come in and work for a day in the palatial headquarters high atop the luxurious Walgreens in downtown San Francisco, and the really lucky ones get to meet me. I sign a few autographs, drop some career wisdom on them. You know.

Then they ask: Who are you again and why are you bothering us?

Seriously, getting to meet these young men and women who are enthusiastically launching themselves into sportswriting careers, or at least launching themselves into careers in which a grounding in sportswriting plays a part, is exciting and energizing.

Frankly, I didn’t have a great answer about Twitter. I told them what I’ve figured out — tweet often, be interesting, be professional, get into conversations, observe how those who seem to be Twitter champions do it — but I wished I had a handy guide, or maybe an infographic, to work from.

Guess what I found this morning! Thanks to MediaBistro’s AllTwitter, I found an infographic called 5½ Best Twitter Practices.

The graphic comes from NJI Media, a design shop. Without meaning it to be a comment on the quality of the infographic, I’ll list the best practices NJI Media recommends, all of which I agree with:

1. Maintain visibility: Tweet often and tweet in the afternoon.

2. Rally up support: Tweet at people. Have conversations with followers. It pays to have Twitter fans.

3. Show your fans some Twitter love: Follow those who retweet you.

4. Share unique content: Tweet interesting and newsworthy links whenever possible.

5. Tweet what you see when & where you see it: Twitter’s one of the fastest news-gathering tools in the world.

5½. Be as concise as possible in your wording & length: Leave space for followers to add RTs & replies, otherwise you’ll end up running out of chara -5