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Former Sun man James McIvor is a self-confessed twitter addict. He joined early last year primarily to promote his company Scooped! Spoof Newspapers but has since launched the world's first online twitter newspaper, The All Tweet Journal. You can follow James at @makingthenews and @alltweetjournal or visit his websites http://www.makingthenews.co.uk or http://thealltweetjournal.com

Here is his take on twitter ...

I JOINED twitter at the same time as I was signing up to loads of other social network sites - myspace, bebo and Facebook to name just three.
All these sites served their purpose of helping to promote my business but, for me at least, twitter has raced ahead of the game.
Its great strength is its simplicity - anyone can use twitter without having to work out how to use fancy applications, although they are available for the geeks.
Around 1,000 people follow my tweets each day and twitter allows me to inform them of our new spoof newspaper front pages, offer Valentine's Day discounts or ask their advice on new ideas.
The easiest way to build up a following is to follow followers of followers, if you follow me.
But it's not all about business, it's great being able to share ideas with people of all different backgrounds, share newspaper or blog articles or just find out how people are passing their day.
Since I signed up the number of people using twitter has increased by 1000% and I read the other day there are now 35million users so it has become a very powerful site.
Twitter scooped the world with the first picture of the Hudson River plane crash - the pic was on twitter within a few moments and I replied to the original tweet to say it was a spoof. A couple of hours later it was on the BBC News at 10.
Celebs are now getting into twitter, presumably because - as you only have 140 characters to play with - they can let their fans know what they're doing very easily and very quickly.
Jonathan Ross announced on twitter that he was hosting the Baftas and the next day every national newspaper ran the story.
I like that I can scan twitter - there are 20 tweets per page - and if anything grabs my attention I'll go straight to that page. It saves the hassle of visiting all your favourite sites - if you follow the right people they do it for you - and it is a very quick and immediate way to keep up to speed with the news.
Earlier this month I launched The All Tweet Journal, an online twitter newspaper that will allow people who use twitter regularly to share their news with a wider audience. I have taken the twitter format and put it onto a regular looking newspaper.
It's early days but the feedback has been great so far and the plan is to go from a weekly newspaper to a daily.
If you are only interested in following your favourite celeb then before signing up to twitter first of all visit valebrity.com to check that it really is them - there a plenty of fakes out there.
So, if you are not already on twitter, twit are you waiting for?

Scooped! director James McIvor is interviewed in today's Sun newspaper, giving his view on the social networking phenomenon twitter.


James - owner of http://www.makingthenews.co.uk - has launched the world's first online newspaper, the all tweet journal.

Here are 20 things to know about twitter

1. Twitter is a social networking site that allows users to micro-blog for free in real-time

2. Posts - called tweets - can be no more than 140 characters long.

3. You can 'follow' other twitterers' tweets and they can follow yours.

4. Your username is @nameofyourchoice and you can have your own picture

5. You can use twitter from your PC or your mobile phone

6. You can post about anything you like .. a link to your own or favourite website or blog, about what you're doing at work, how you're favourite sports team are doing (you can tweet direct from the game) where you're going that night, when you're playing your next gig - or, simply, what you had for dinner. It is also useful for asking your followers a question and, often, getting a prompt response.

7. Posts - both yours and your followers' - are displayed on your profile page like a micro-blog, allowing you to scan over each page and spread news very quickly.

8. You can follow a number of celebrities on twitter including @britneyspears @andymurray @wossy (Jonathan Ross) and @coldplay

9. The twitterer with the most followers is @barackobama who at the last count had more than 250,000

10. @stephenfry is at No3 with almost 200,000 followers

11. @stephenfry tweeted from 'The Green Room' moments before he appeared on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross last month.

12. twitter scooped the world with the Hudson River jet crash - a picture of the plane was posted on twitter within minutes of it crashing and was later used on BBC News.

13. twitterers can get their daily diet of news from twitter with @bbc @skynews and @cnn all regularly updating

14. An estimated 35million people use twitter worldwide

15. twitter - founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams - does not allow advertising on the site and has not made a single penny but last year turned down a £350million bid from Facebook.

16. There are now hundreds of twitter applications which allow users to share photos, videos or files or just find people more easily.

17. There is now a dedicated online twitter newspaper called http://thealltweetjournal.com

18. There is a website dedicated to validating celebrities on twitter called http://valebrity.com

19. On February 12 more than 175 cities around the world - including Glasgow and Edinburgh - will be hosting Twestivals which bring together Twitter communities for an evening of fun and to raise money and awareness for charity: water.

20. twitter is not all good though ... @russellbrand has joined.

Scooped! has teamed up with the Edinburgh Evening News - to allow you to star on the front page of the paper for FREE!

To celebrate Valentine’s Day we’re giving away a spoof newspaper front page to EVERY Evening News reader.

With our exclusive 100% discount you can name your partner BEST GIRLFRIEND, BOYFRIEND, WIFE or HUSBAND IN SCOTLAND and put them on the front of a personalised newspaper.

You can order online at www.makingthenews.co.uk/eveningnews or you can order by post by completing the coupon (below)

If you order online at http://www.makingthenews.co.uk it will take just 60 SECONDS to create your very own Evening News front page. All we need is the person’s name, age and where they live and a picture (optional) and that’s it, you have made them a front page star.

At the checkout, please enter the code SCOOPNEWS to get your page for free. All you will be asked to pay is £2.99 for postage and packaging.

A personalised newspaper gift is the perfect personalised Valentine's Day gift.

Postal Entries:

You can order by post by filling in the coupon below and sending to Scooped! Giveaway, 50 Shuna Place, Newton Mearns, Glasgow, G77 6TN. If you send a photograph to go with your order please also include a stamped addressed envelope to ensure its return. There is an additional £1 administration charge for postal entries so please also include a cheque, made payable to Scooped! Limited, for £3.99) Entries that do not include a cheque will not be processed and if an SAE is not included we will be unable to return photographs. Please also advise delivery address.

If you would like to contact Scooped! email scooped@makingthenews.co.uk or call 0141 639 9918

Coupon:
Person’s Name …………………………..
Age ……………………………………………..
Gender ……………………………………….
Living In ……………………………………..
Headline: The Best ..................................
 ..........

Delivery address ………………………
……………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………..
Postcode…………………………………….

Standard terms and condition apply.