It’s not often we get a quarterly financial statement from a privately held firm, but then these are not ordinary times, particularly in the field of social media monitoring/analytics. Who’s the company? The newly funded Visible Technologies, which boasts of a greater-than-doubling of revenues in the first quarter of 2011.

Last week we reported on the two-headed force of social media and online video propelling advertisers in the UK to a record spend for 2010. While we wait for the audited US online ad spend numbers to come out in the coming weeks, here’s further evidence of the importance of online video to the marketing world.

One of the most crowded fields of social enterprise software — social media monitoring — just got more cut-throat with Salesforce.com entering the market in the form of a $326 million buyout of Radian6 earlier today. Has the great social media measurement shakeout finally begun?

That’s one way to interpret the findings of a new study that pits ad agency vs. PR practitioner and asks: which sector is better positioned to take advantage of big brands’ push toward social media?

With global stock markets ping-ponging back and forth these days over political instability in North Africa and the Middle East, escalating food prices and a near-nuclear meltdown in Japan we cannot resist adding yet another variable to the stock-watching puzzle: a company’s online popularity.

The evolution of online video, you could say, took a step backwards last week with Warner Bros. stepping up as the first Hollywood studio to cut a Facebook distribution deal, streaming rentals of “The Dark Knight” for three bucks a pop. To some online video experts, it’s not the price tag, but the experience that has them grumbling. Batman fans are confined to viewing the entire film off-site, on Facebook.

For the 198,775 people who’ve declared their allegiance to the Microsoft Zune, these are troubling times. News reports are swirling that Microsoft will kill off the iPod-wannabe imminently. The only problem is Microsoft is denying the reports, but nobody’s listening. Yes, there’s a Zune metaphor in there somewhere.

The shakeout of winners and losers has begun. Google’s now infamous search algorithm change last month is diverting eyeballs away from so-called content farms and middle-man publishers. Who gains? Big media, for one. And brands-turned-publisher, too.

If a big brand were to be cast in one of those bitchy teen movies, one set entirely in the world of Facebook, it would be that shunned, unloved character that walks barely noticed down the high school corridor. When it does get noticed he or she will no doubt get doused with a slushie. Why? Because. Teens can be pretty brutal.

Walk down the street of most any city or big town in the world and you’re likely to see a Subway sandwich shop. In fact, the Wall Street Journal reports the fast-food chain is now more ubiquitous than the golden arches of McDonald’s. Mickey D’s is still champ in revenues, and it’s no contest online either.