• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, August 25, 2012

That’s the number of people (plus this blogger) who reacted to a visually-based social media event launched by BuzzFeed, according to Chief Revenue Officer Andy Wiedlin.

Wiedlin, who was annotating some of the 21 images in the “Twenty-one Images That Restore Your Faith In Humanity” effort during this morning’s session of the Social Media Insider Summit, said 9 million people reacted to the BuzzFeed story, by clicking on one or more of the images.

Interestingly, he said, only about 250,000 of them did so by seeing in on BuzzFeed, while 8.5 million did it by clicking on an image shared on Facebook – a multiple of 40 to one.

Some of the images shown by Wiedlin during the panel discussion, included one of a cross-country racer helping a fatigued competitor cross the finish line, and one of some protesters giving a general a birthday cake on his birthday (breaking a siege between the protesters and soldiers commanded by the general.

And, oh yeah, a picture of kittens, of course. (Why that would restore your faith in humanity, I don’t know, but it probably will restore your faith in BuzzFeed, which actually has a full-time editor devoted to curating stories and images about pussycats.)