Advertisers have begun to divert – or even throw – much more money Facebook’s way, according to one of the company’s top execs.  COO Sheryl Sandberg indicated in an interview that some large organizations have increased their spending ten- or twentyfold in the last year.

To be more precise, Sandberg actually told Brian Womack just how much things have changed in the past 24 or so months.  "Two years ago the big brands were experimenting with us," she said.  "They started buying with us a year ago.  Now, they’re going big."

That’s obviously good news for the social network.  Plus, considering that the economy is still less than stable, the improvement’s even more impressive than it would have been under other circumstances, and may speak to bigger gains in the future.

Anyway, Facebook doesn’t intend to let all that cash collect dust.  Vaughan Smith, its director of business and corporate development, said, "As we get bigger and our platform gets more stable, I fully expect that we will be doing more significant acquisitions.  This is working for us, and it’s working for the people that we’re acquiring."

Unfortunately, Smith didn’t name any acquisition targets, and Sandberg didn’t say exactly which advertisers have started to cut Facebook huge checks.

Still, it looks like a whole lot more money will be making its way through the social network, and that should make Facebook much more attractive to investors if and when it finally makes an initial public offering.