While Twitter membership rapidly grows and endless column inches a day are devoted to the phenomenon, marketers have been scratching their heads about the best way to use this new tool.

The obvious appeal is the ability to immediately reach out and create two-way communication with a wide audience, giving you the opportunity to sell yourself – and to handle customer service / reputation management issues.

The concern so far as Twitter is still largely populated by early adopters and members of the web marketing community – can you communicate with the right people?

Here’s a little anecdote to illustrate the marketing potential of Twitter.

My colleague (@davidsegal) has a friend who works for Sarah Coggles (@coggles_com) – an independent fashion retailer.

We have another colleague in our London office (@ballueder) who maintains a personal blog, posting pertinent and sometimes esoteric content.  This content is sometimes included in his Twitter posts.

We noticed that @coggles_com had linked to something @ballueder had posted – probably completely coincidentally, but this led to me tofollow @coggles_com and take a look at some of the clothes on their site.

I found a dress that I love and cheekily asked for a discount as a Twitter follower – which I have been given!

The end result is that I am seriously tempted to ignore the credit crunch and splash out on a new dress – all because of Twitter…

More info to add to my presentation on the opportunities and threats of marketing through Twitter that I’m giving at the International Search Summit later this year.