The “voices of the few” seem to be setting the social search agenda, or at least influencing what we find on social sites.
In the weekend WSJ (subscription required), an article entitled “The Wizards of Buzz” identified super-influencers across America who are contributing freely or for minimal pay.
These influencers include techies, people in the hinterlands, and devoted teens. They contribute links or bookmarks at a feverish pace.
What’s clear is that many social site visitors respond to these contributions. On sites like Digg or Reddit, influencers submit items that receive many votes. At De.licio.us or Furl.net, influencers tag and bookmark many items and others respond by bookmarking what they discover.
What’s less clear is whether the influencers are truly defining relevancy for the visitors, and whether visitors are missing what smaller voices are contributing as well.