Last week Weston had the opportunity to present to the Chattanooga Transportation Club about social media’s influence in our quickly changing world. Here is a rundown of some of the most interesting facts Weston pointed out to the club:

About Facebook:

- Facebook has overtaken Google as the most viewed site on the web.

- If Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd largest on Earth with more than 600 million users.

- Time it took to reach 50 million users: Radio, 38 years; TV, 12 years; Internet, 4 years; Facebook, added over 200 million users in one year.

General observations:

- Social media’s value in the marketplace is summed up by the fact that 90% of people trust recommendations from people they know and 34% trust friend recommendations “completely.” Only 8% of people trust television ads completely.

- Twitter assisted the U.S. Government during the 2009 protests in Iran by delaying a planned maintenance of the site in order to keep the social media platform open to use by protesters in dangerous situations.

- Facebook and Twitter played a major role in the recent uprising in Egypt — many bloggers said the movement was “dependent” on social media.