Twitter has its own ecosystem. Described as a lifecasting and mindcasting platform, it seems to be an open protocol that opens up infinite new forms of communication. Or None!

Not surprisingly in April, Nielsen reported that 60% of Twitter’s new users churn after the first month, and the Harvard Business Review has narrowed down to a mere 10% the percentage of savvy users who generate 90% of the Tweets. Last week, HubSpot, the Cambridge-based marketing firm behind the TwitterGrader, has published a report claiming that

• 55.5% of users are not following anyone
• 54.9% have never tweeted
• 52.7% have no followers

Bottom line: most user don’t get Twitter. But those who do, have been succesful in using it for driving sales (Dell), increasing their fan base ( Zoë Keating, DJ Richie Hawtin, John Mayer,  Mike Skinner, Lily Allen, Imogen Heap,J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, to name a few), increasing the readership of their blog (more than Google!- see the just released statistics from TechCrunch).

But how to get started without looking like a fool? There’s a small manual now available, The Twitter Book by Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein, who does a great job in introducing the reader to the Twitter Ecosystem.

The Twitter Book is a rare example of book that fits the needs of both a beginner and a more advanced user.

It starts from the core question, what’s Twitter good for and lists a few possible answers

1. Ambient Intimacy- you get to follow what your friends and relatives are doing by reading their tweets, without having to reply.
2. Sharing news - You can follow the reads and links broadcasted by the opinion leaders or other members of your industry
3. Sharing experiences – Something happens, it will get twitted right away (in your neighborhood or in the world)
4. Mind Reading- A well-honed search can reveal how people feel about your company, your music,your brand.
5. Business Conversations– It lets companies engage with customers and partners in a direct way – both personal and public.

To get you started, the book explains the details in signing up and lists various tips to maximize your enjoyment and use of Twitter. For example:

1. Create a compelling profile – Describe yourself, put a photo and a link to your site.
2. Understand what “following” means – in Twitter, this is asymmetric; two people don’t have to agree to follow each other to see each other’s messages.
3. Find people you know on Twitter  and get suggestions for cool people to follow – that’s  Twitter: you follow interesting people and if you are interesting yourself, you get your own following.

Then, the book explains a bit more about some conventions, jargons and terms, such as the concept of #hashtags, tweet, retweet, tweetup and @replies.

The most interesting parts for a less novice Twitter user are the tips at the bottom of numerous pages. Some examples of less-known tricks that you can find in The Twitter Book are how to conduct better searches using Twitter’s “advanced search”, how to sort messages, and subscribe to Twitter feeds using RSS. Even more beneficial are the lists of tools and apps for checking topic trends, measuring how frequently certain tweets are read, counting the hits for sites recommended through Twitter posts.

Finally, the authors focus the last section of The Twitter Book to explaining why Twitter is significant for businesses. They list uses such as promotions, customer service, and virtual meetings. And stress how not to use Twitter, particularly for spamming. If businesses want to attract followers, they should include information about related topics rather than bombarding followers with advertisements on their product.  Personally, I would have liked a more in-depth analysis on the business uses of Twitter and cases studies, but that’s not what the book is for probably.

The book is a compact manual that reads easily and has a lot of precious tips. It’s not your book if you’re looking to grow your followers by the thousands/day as many spammers are unfortunately doing.

I’m adding it to the must-read books

• The Cluetrain Manifesto by Levine, Searle, Locke, and Weinberger
• Naked Conversations by Scoble and Israel
• The Search by Battelle
• The Long Tail by Anderson
• The New Rules of Marketing and PR by Meerman Scott
• Anything by Seth Godin
• Groundswell by Li and Bernoff