Chris Pirillo (Twitter ID = @chrispirillo) is a genius – in 12 minutes, he got several thousand people to instantly click to his late-night online talk show.

Here’s what Chris posted to Twitter:
“Your Twitter avatar will appear in my next video if you reply to this tweet over the next few minutes. :) http://live.pirillo.com/”

I just happened to refresh my screen at the moment he posted this, and instantly sent him a direct reply saying, “@chrispirillo What’s the video about?”

I then clicked on the link above, http://live.pirillo.com/, and this is what I saw…

(Check out my mug on the screen just over his left shoulder – it matches the photo at the top of this blog.)

Everybody wanted to see their avatar, so they clicked over to watch the show. Simple. Brilliant.