Authority bloggers and original thought leaders gather a lot of attention in the social media landscape. Just like in real life, you look up to those people whom you think have a lot to offer; the online crowds are easily moved by prominent online figures. When Michael Arrington says something good about a tech startup, thousands of people visit the tech startups site. When Robert Scoble predicts something about the industry, heated discussions on that topic all across the blogosphere begin.
If certain people have so much influence, you can ride off their backs (metaphorically) to get your word out forward. You can befriend them on Facebook where you can introduce your launch pages or blog posts – thus leading their followers to your sites. You can shadow them by posting comments on their posts when they post and commenting when they comment on other blog’s just so they see you as a positive contributor in the same conversations as they.
Once you are in their scope you can contact them and ask to interview them. I always prefer a written email interview on first approach as its less demanding, thus less of a decision for them to have to make. You can send them a set of questions and have them email back answers that you can publish. They will usually say yes for ego sake, and will link to their interview giving you link juice. You get link juice, rankings, traffic & credibility.