Dragons' Den star and retail entrepreneur Theo Paphitis

The power of social media to promote a business has been underlined by Dragons’ Den star Theo Paphitis, who has given one Norfolk business a boost by mentioning the firm to his 140,000 followers on Twitter.

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Retail entrepreneur Mr Paphitis selects six small businesses each week to mention on the social media site.

Norwich-based web design and search engine marketing firm Metalfrog Studios was one of the six picked by Mr Paphitis last Sunday - and, according to founder Chris Wheeler, calls from potential customers have flooded in ever since.

“We had 22,500 visitors to our web site in the first two hours of the mention and about 15 enquiries a day since,” Mr Wheeler said.

“We have achieved new contacts on a wider level and our own search engine ranks have gone up because of the increase in traffic.

“Our local reputation and profile has gone national and our clients have seen benefits in traffic increases from new visitors looking at our work – their sites.”

Metalfrog Studios was set up by Mr Wheeler in 2007 from offices in Drayton Old Lodge.

The business moved to a new office in Taverham in January last year and now employs 9 full-time staff and one part-time employee.

Mr Wheeler said he anticipated turnover reaching £500,000 this year; adding that clients included TomTom, McDonalds, Qantas and Robinsons Mercedes.

“The benefits of the Theo Paphitis involvement have been an increase in awareness, the increase in traffic, and the increase in quotation requests,” Mr Wheeler added.

“None of the requests have turned to orders, but we are confident this will happen in the coming weeks.”