Paul Hill, business editorThere are those who criticise it as a waste of time, but using social networking site Twitter has paid off for one Norwich company.Paul Hill, business editor

There are those who criticise it as a waste of time, but using social networking site Twitter has paid off for one Norwich company.

E-training business Real Projects showed how you do not always need sales executives with smart suits and the gift of gab by proving it is possible to win a new client in fewer than 140 characters.

The Mountergate based company specialises in "game-based learning" - taking the tools and approach of computer games to enliven training for business clients.

The firm posted a "tweet" about a new game that was being developed to help train people working in the oil and gas industry.

Within an hour, a discussion was under way - using the internet phone service Skype - with an executive from the Norwegian oil and gas industry training specialist Simprentis about working together.

Real Projects managing director Scott Hewitt said: "Generally, we don't use Twitter to just tell people what we're doing. We use it to share information and we post about innovation. In this case, the post was picked up and we received an instant response. Within an hour we were agreeing to get things moving."

Mr Hewitt said the firm - which was set up five years ago and which now has a turnover approaching �500,000 - was working with a number of public and private sector clients.

"One of the things you can do is use the tools that the game industry has developed - how they use avatars and so on - and deliver those to business for training staff in a variety of things," he said.

"We can use the principles of games, including the fun and entertaining elements, to bring perhaps less interest content to life."

The Real Projects Twitter feed can be found at TwitterID: @realprojects.

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