  Exoplanet research focusing on the characterization of super-Earths is
currently limited to those handful targets orbiting bright stars that are
amenable to detailed study. This Letter proposes to look at alternative avenues
to probe the surface and atmospheric properties of this category of planets,
known to be ubiquitous in our galaxy. I conduct Markov Chain Monte Carlo
lightcurve analyses for 97 Kepler close-in $R_P \lesssim 2.0 R_{\oplus}$
super-Earth candidates with the aim to detect their occultations at visible
wavelengths. Brightness temperatures and geometric albedos in the Kepler
bandpass are constrained for 27 super-Earth candidates. A hierarchical Bayesian
modeling approach is then employed to characterize the population-level
reflective properties of these close-in super-Earths. I find median geometric
albedos $A_g$ in the Kepler bandpass ranging between 0.16 and 0.30, once
decontaminated from thermal emission. These super-Earths geometric albedos are
statistically larger than for hot Jupiters, which have medians $A_g$ ranging
between 0.06 and 0.11. A subset of objects, including Kepler-10b, exhibit
significantly larger albedos ($A_g\gtrsim$0.4). I argue that a better
understanding of the incidence of stellar irradiation on planetary surface and
atmospheric processes is key to explain the diversity in albedos observed for
close-in super-Earths.
