How do you get the most help from influential early supporters?

Before Christmas Ryan Hoover (founder of PH) was kind enough to tweet to his ~160k followers one of my discussions. I did the usual; I liked it, replied with a thank you and my thoughts on the topic etc

It was helpful to bring awareness to a topic that is important to me and (through my profile) introduce people to my Product. But it got me to thinking about how to get the most from early (influential) supporters of your Product

The nature of what I’m building means that I have a number of people with credibility and large followings signed up. They’re all very positive and offering their support but i haven’t considered what I should be asking them to do…

I’m interested in your experiences of influential early adopters;

What did you ask them to do to support you?
What purpose did it serve (greater credibility, promote to potential customers etc)?
What was the result of that support (new users, investment, attract talented employees)?