JAMES CAMP ON WHY HE'S FOCUSING ON TWITTER (TWITTER GROWTH TIPS)

So I'm very, very, very, very, very, very blessed in that I have a lot of people that follow me on Twitter and that all I talk about is marketing and e-commerce essentially. And so I, one reason I go so crazy hard on Twitter is because I've recognized that it is like, there's a term that private equity guys and girls love and it's proprietary deal flow. And the reality is like, I actually have real proprietary deal flow. And it's sort of weird because what you talk to most people that are buying brands and companies is that like, by the time something gets to a broker, it's probably not the best thing, right? Like brokers traditionally have things that have been combed over by everyone already. So I mean, I look at brokerages all the time, like they're every day. And I think there's actually a lot of interesting stuff coming up on MicroAcquire. Uh, which is like kind of new, but they've got some looking like some really great stuff on there. Problem is like, I think anyone can list anything, so you just do a lot of fine-tooth combing. Um, but yeah, I mean, so for me, the first one was a brand I was consulting with last year. I've done a lot of consulting work for DTC brands, and so there's a couple that I approached that I saw opportunity with. I was like, hey, like, what are your thoughts on this? And one of them was like, 100%, let's do it. Um, and then every once in a while I'll just tweet out like, hey, do you have a business that's doing over $500,000 in EBITDA? And, you know, luckily, like, a good one of my tweets, like, I, I, I have one that's about to go, uh, it's like a 998,000 impression right now, right? So it's like reaching a million people and they're all within my demo, right? So it's been so Twitter is a long story short.

And so I know you've been on Twitter since 2011, but when did you really kind of start to take it seriously? When was that shift?

It's funny, I probably need to go back and just like delete my old Twitter because I started taking Twitter seriously last year when I sold my company, or like when I knew I was gonna sell it. Like I just was just getting— I had nothing to do and I was just— that was a lot of fun and became totally addicted to the dopamine hit, the gamification of it. 2011, I'm horrified to imagine what I was tweeting in 2011. But so probably, I mean, I can tell you, I track what I do now on Twitter. So really taking it seriously probably last September. And I had probably 800 followers last September. So I think I just settled over 27,000 today.

Wow. And so was there, because I think there was one thread that you posted, I think it was a website flipping thread, and that's really what kind of kicked off your growth, right? I think you more than doubled doubled your followers in a day or something?

Oh, I went from like, yeah, I got 1,400 followers in a day from my first, and it's actually the pinned thread. It's funny 'cause everyone saw it, people like, this website's not there anymore. I'm like, this is just a framework to follow. But it's sort of what made me, so my sort of niche, it's interesting how this becomes, I never wanted to be the website flipping guy, you know, but I just sort of became the website flipping guy. I flip some websites. I get the mechanics of customer acquisition and monetization, which are the two levers that can be pulled buying a website, making it better and selling it, right? That's all it is, right? And so I added it up. I think I've sold like 12 sites in my life. So it's not like I haven't done this a lot, but people say to me like, oh, how many websites do you flip a year? People assume that I'm just like, all I do is wheel and deal, right? And with Common Commerce, I guess it's a flip. We'll look for an exit, you know what I mean? The idea is to find liquidity for our equity at some point, but I wouldn't call it a flip. I'd like to get a 9-figure exit out of it. Um, but I became the website flipping guy and it was just because like I'm a firm believer in listening to like data and the data told me that people, I needed to niche down and people wanted to listen to me, people wanted to talk to me when I talk about flipping websites. And basically it's just easy because all I talk about is just again, it's monetization and growth, customer acquisition. Those are the levers they pull. Um, And then now it's reached the point I sort of, I wouldn't call it escape velocity, so to speak, but I sort of, I get Twitter and, you know, I've probably done like the past 30 days, more like 5 or 6,000 followers in the past 30 days. Like I'm pretty confident I'll hit 50,000 this year. I have some friends that I've actually met through Twitter who are very successful entrepreneurs. I think we're gonna start a podcast basically just where we just shoot the shit essentially. I'm sure no one will wanna listen, but my point is that like, It's more, I built a little side business off Twitter, which is cool, but the magic of Twitter to me has been like, I think it is for sure above and beyond the best networking tool I've ever come across in my entire life by like multiple times, like makes LinkedIn trash. Deal flow for Common Commerce, meeting mentors, meeting people I've looked up to, meeting great friends. So I probably will just continue to to go pretty hard on that platform. But it's been the threads about website flipping that have made me grow so fast.

Okay, so what's kind of like the strategy? Like, if I'm— if I don't post like website flipping threads, like, what's kind of that, that science, that 80%? I know the 20% of growing on LinkedIn is like just being interesting and having interesting thing to talk about, but like beyond that 20%, what's that 80% science? Like, what's kind of the strategy? Obviously don't give away all your secrets, but like what's some things you can share with that within that 80% to help people kind of get started with Twitter growth?

I'll tell you the exact 80%. The reason I'll tell you the exact 80% is because it's 20% art. That's what I tell people about all this stuff, right? Is it like, I'll teach you the science for sure. Like, that's not hard. I can teach you the science of customer acquisition monetization as well, right? Like, it's full of data. The reality is like, are you gonna be good? It's like writing. Like, I could show you how to write, doesn't mean you're a great writer, right? So I will tell you that with Twitter, that threads rule everything, um, which is that like Take something that is complex and esoteric and seems unattainable that you understand in depth and break it down in a way that anyone can understand in a thread. That's going to be probably the main key there. The other side of it is, this is actually came from this guy Pomp, said it way before me, but just like tweet in the beginning, you just want to be tweeting so much that you're embarrassed by how much you're tweeting. I'm much more thoughtful with how I tweet now, but I kind of, you just wanna overwhelm the algo. Once you get into the algorithm's favor, you want to keep feeding it more content, you know? And then everyone says this, but it's true. Like, bro, I literally respond to every comment that I have to the point that it's like sort of becoming almost unmanageable. Like I spend probably 3 hours, 2 to 3 hours a day on Twitter, 7 days a week. And it's not like scrolling, it's for sure not scrolling and looking at tweets, right? It's like me tweeting and responding to people. So I realized I probably spend 90 hours a month on Twitter. So I spend 2 full work weeks, at least 2 full work weeks every month on Twitter. So I hope it's growing fast. Like when I think of it like that, like it better be growing fast. But being really engaging, commenting on big accounts, not just like, that's cool, but like if someone with a big account that gets a lot of reach, commenting something really insightful and useful on their tweets, lets other people see it, brings them to your profile. The game is really having an engaging profile, which is like your landing page. That explains what you do, uh, and why people should follow you, and then getting as many eyeballs on your profile as possible. So that happens through something like a great thread or commenting on other people's threads and tweets, um, or just tweeting a lot, you know, and, and sort of following people, engaging with them. In the beginning, it's more about like really meaningful one-on-one relationships, and then eventually you sort of like, it becomes less important. And I don't know, I've been very blessed. I got some very big accounts that follow me. I like only follow like 10 people that like really helped me, I think, sort of grow.