An ex-CEO of Bebo, Joanna Shields, has been hired by Facebook to lead its European sales operations; with her job description pretty much focusing on converting Facebook’s millions of visitors into more revenue.

"Facebook is redefining marketing and transforming how businesses and consumers interact," says Shields.

While Facebook has more than 400 million users and recently overtook Google as the most visited website in the US, its sales numbers are still dwarfed by the search giants. Analysts believe Facebook will collect between $1 billion and $1.5 billion in sales this year, compared to the $23.7 billion collected by Google last year.

The Telegraph reports that Shields, who oversaw Bebo’s $850 million (€630 million) sale to AOL in 2008, will become vice-president of sales and business development for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Booming the company line from the get go, Shields said, “With its culture of authentic identity, Facebook is redefining marketing and transforming how businesses and consumers interact.” She added, “It is a privilege to help lead this kind of change for Facebook in EMEA. I can’t think of a more important and interesting professional challenge.”

Will this mean advertising overload on Facebook? Hopefully not but it’ll be interesting to see what changes Shields has in store.