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Thinking caps on, pretty please - don't worry, nothing too onerous!

Following on from the success of our first Chinwag Insight conference, Chinwag Insight: Facebook Marketing, we're starting to plan for the next event, probably post-Easter 2012.

As with the first event, the aim of these conferences is to delve deep into a topic area. There's lots of options, which is where you come in. If we could beg 15 seconds of your precious brain power, could you fill in the poll below and let us know what you think.

It couldn't be easier. Just one question: which topic should we dive into and explore in-depth? Should we revisit Facebook Marketing, what about Twitter? YouTube? Or for those looking at B2B and recruitment, what about Linkedin?

The figures are enough to make your head spin: in the first half of 2011 Facebook revealed it had doubled revenue to $1.6 billion - with $500 million of that pure profit - and is on track to exceed $4 billion by the end of the year. Not bad for what began as an online college yearbook.

Facebook's astonishing growth in revenue is closely tied to user growth. The network has accrued a greater number of users than ever before, rising to over 800 million worldwide, extending to diverse demographics and locales, and enabling advertisers to reach and engage consumers with utmost precision and frequency.

Last week saw the return of Chinwag Live, and with the help of our event sponsors, Conversocial we brought you Chinwag Live: When Customer Service Goes Social.

The event looked into the profound impact social media is having on how corporates interact with their existing and prospective customers. We discussed challenges and solutions as well as the future of customer service on Facebook and other social tools.

If you missed the event, or just want to take a look at the action again, you can check out the video here.

Facebook: from the bedroom of an Ivy League colleague to a Silicon Valley powerhouse. It's an all-American startup dream, but one that the Brits have taken to heart and then some.

This new infographic from BLiNQ Media, who have recently opened an office in London, shows Facebook penetration in the UK (49%) leads the US (48%). OK, so obsessed might be going a bit far, but safe to say, we're fans despite any privacy concerns.

Whilst luxury brand tops the chart in the UK, it's Starbucks in the US, the other 4 top brands are all confectioners: Skittles, Cadbury Creme Egg, Cadbury Wispa and Maltesers.

Today is the last chance to grab an early-bird ticket to this week's Facebook Marketing Conference on Thu 6th Oct. We know everyone works late, so the early-bird lasts until midnight.

Early-bird tickets start at just £199+VAT+booking fee with the chinwag discount code, saving £100 off the regular price. And for those interested in the Facebook Marketing Bootcamp workshop on Wednesday, there's just one ticket left.

The full programme is up on the website with a few last-minute additions helping us to take an in-depth look of the impact of the f8 announcements. It's going to be a busy day with 30 speakers from leading brands and agencies, discussing the strategies of getting ROI fro Facebook Marketing.

The impact of Facebook's announcements at f8 are still being digested, Mat Morrison, Head of Social Media at Starcom MediaVest and a speaker at Chinwag Insight: Facebook Marketing this week, takes a look at what these changes mean for brand adverisers.

Despite reaching half a billion Daily Active Users (DAU), Facebook's real value lies not simply in its reach, but in the depth of the data that it holds about that audience.

Much has been written about Facebook being driven by competition from other social networks, but it should be remembered that the real competition is not for users' time and attention, but for advertisers' budgets.

The news hit my mini-feed like a ton of bricks. The truth is scarier than any horror film you've seen this year...

Facebook is changing and about to start charging it's users.

We've known for a while the company isn't as profitable as it needs to be and it's looking into an IPO. But is this move right for the company?

Chinwag Live returns next week, and we have a right treat in store for you. Not only do we have Facebook, Nando's, Conversocial, Marks & Spencer and Capgemini on the panel, we are very excited to announce that Robin Grant, Managing Director of We Are Social is joining us to complete the high profile line up.

As we all know – yesterday was the Facebook F8 Developers Conference in San Francisco. After lots of speculation and rumours, I have boiled down the announcement and described what this means for the future of Facebook.

There are two things you need to know about from yesterday’s conference - The Facebook Timeline and Social Apps.

Facebook didn’t say when it will launch; the company merely said that it “won’t be available for a few weeks.”

However, you can get the Facebook Timeline immediately, if you submit yourself as a developer (which a lot of people are doing and I am also in the process of doing).

So…

Fancy hearing from leading brands such as Dell, BBC, Nokia, Tesco and Expedia?

Or how about examining some leading case studies, including The Big Fish Fight, Mr Men Sweets, Chelsea Football Club, Doctor Who and Top Gear?

If all of this sounds like something you would be interested in, you need to get yourself a ticket for the Chinwag Insight: Facebook Marketing conference on Thurs 6th Oct.

We're very excited to announce the first Chinwag Insight conference and bootcamp, Chinwag Insight: Facebook Marketing taking place in central London on 5th and 6th Oct, 2011. And for the Chinwag audience, book early and save £100 - on the early-bird rates, too.

Facebook has an audience of over 30m registered users in the UK and 700m worldwide and with a multitude of channels and techniques to target them, what's working, what's not. The conference will look at case studies from Dell, Channel 4 amongst others as well as hearing from Facebook themselves.

So, that's my facetious take on the new feature, Facebook Subscribe, launched yesterday in the run-up to the announcement frenzy of the company's f8 conference.

In a nutshell: Facebook Subscribe = Twitter Follow.