Last week, I held a teleclass to give a sneak preview of my Social Media Marketing Blueprint. At its peak, all 250 lines were maxed out. Originally scheduled for 75 minutes, the call took 90 minutes to complete.

It became a trending topic on Twitter Search, just underneath Obama and a girl named Anita. Here’s the screenshot from November 12, 2008:

And here’s a closer look at the list of trending topics on the right from Twitter Search:

How was I able to max out 250 lines and get people so excited that the teleclass is one of the most popular topics on Twitter?

1. I encouraged those on the teleclass to share the call-in details on Twitter after the call started. Because the call was free, sharing the call-in details wasn’t a problem. This helped increased the numbers so that those who didn’t have time to sign up could just call in without giving me their email.
2. I created a easy to remember hashtag and asked everyone to use it in their tweets. Hashtags to Twitter are like keywords to Google. Develop one that’s less than 5 words, then encourage everyone to add it to their tweets. The one I used for this call was #smmb. Then using Twitter Search, I could follow the conversation.
3. I encouraged those who couldn’t call in live to use the hashtag while listening to the recording. This helped to keep my teleclass visible in people’s eyes even after the live event was over.

As more and more people started to tweet their thoughts about what they were hearing on the teleclass, it became a popular topic on Twitter Search. But I noticed a curious thing happening as a result of using Twitter and a hashtag to monitor feedback for my teleclass:

1. The barrier to participation was removed. If you just found out about the event, just pick up your phone and call in as I asked those who registered in advance just to tweet the call in details. No forms to fill out.
2. People started to follow the conversation and build relationships with each other. When people looked at who was twittering about the event here, they naturally started to connect with each other.
3. People started to build their follow lists because of the call. Again, as people followed the conversation here, they started to follow those who were commenting about the call.
4. Whether people listened live or played back the recording, they felt included. I strongly encouraged those who were listening to the recording to use the hashtag to tweet their thoughts. There was feedback coming in 2, 3, even 4 days after the live event ended.
5. Registrations continued to flood in after the call was over. On the live event, I encouraged those who just got the call in details from Twitter to go to the sign up page to get details about the recording. In the 3 day period after the call was over and before I pulled the recording from the page, I got just under 100 additional subscribers.

My advice? You may not end up in the Top 10 of trending topics on Twitter Search for your own event, but using hashtags do help in encouraging interaction between you and those listening to your call.

While it will boost your ego to max out your phone lines, what’s even more rewarding is being the hub that connects people with each other.