Getting started in social media is a lot like getting started in investing. It pays to have a plan. And, much like investment planning, TJ Gilsenan, the Web Savvy Advisor, says social media planning involves assessing where you are now, determining where you want to go, and establishing a plan to get there. If you are like most advisors, you’re probably just getting started. For you less is more. When it comes to your social media plan, start with the big picture. Focus on broad subject matter areas first, then zero in on the details. Here are seven broad components to include in your social media plan:

Charles River Development has officially launched a new data management platform that will help fund managers integrate reference, issuer, benchmark-index and pricing data into their front- and middle-office applications.

The leading provider of software for 250,000 finance professionals, Emerging Information Systems, announced today that it expects to be acquired by Zywave, a provider of on-demand software for the insurance industry.

Deutsche Boerse said its derivatives exchange, Eurex, completed the re-location of its matching engines to a single data center. The Eurex trading and clearing infrastructure is now located in a Frankfurt data center operated by Equinix. In July, Deutsche Boerse moved its Xetra electronic stock trading market to the same data center.Eurex and Equinix had already been offering a co-location service in that International Business Exchange, since 2006. …

Get ready to connect with far-flung colleagues: The FPA’s much-awaited new social networking site is live and picking up speed. Several thousand members worldwide are already connecting online, forming groups and developing their own self-directed platforms within the 24,000 member-strong organization.

The United Kingdom Competition Commission said it had provisionally found that the acquisition of the largest all-electronic trading facility in Europe by BATS Global Markets would not significantly block competition.

BigFoot Investments has launched a cloud-based investment strategy software portfolio that streamlines trading, data delivery and client correspondence for RIAs and registered reps via their PCs, tablets and smartphones.

EDGAR Online said it will start delivering data on over-the-counter stocks that do not report their financial results to the SEC.

ConvergEx Group said it introduced an algorithm that lets portfolio managers take advantage of dark pools.

Interactive Data Corp and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority are trying to shed some light on market activity related to U.S. structured securities for the first time ever.

Cisco Systems said it has commercially introduced a switch that can route trading messages through its circuitry and back out onto a wire in under one microsecond.

EDGAR Online Inc., a global provider of XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) software, services and data, reports that it experienced a 280% year-over-year increase in XBRL filings in the third quarter.

The “smoking guns” were dropped in a Chicago river. Only the “guns” were not guns. They were hard drives. And the suspect is not a gangster, a la Al Capone. Instead, it is a programmer and former employee of Citadel, the computer-driven hedge fund in the Windy City.

Direct Edge has been sanctioned for weak internal controls that led to millions of dollars in trading losses and a systems outage.

John Hancock Funds has made a number of enhancements to its Portfolio Insight tool for financial advisors, including the ability to compare portfolios side by side and see full transparency into holdings.

Fidelity Information Services tops the rankings in 2011 of the largest financial technology vendors in the world, according to the eighth annual FinTech 100 survey compiled by IDC Financial Insights, American Banker and Bank Technology News.

Financial Tracking Technologies said its insider trading detection technology has been expanded to cover international markets.

LPL Financial Retirement Partners has rolled out the next iteration of its portfolio of tools for retirement plan advisors working with plan sponsors.

Advisor Software this week launched goalgamiPro, a web-based financial planning tool that lets advisors create and maintain multiple household balance sheets to help prioritize and access their clients’ long-term financial goals.

Citigroup is adopting a managed service from Fidessa Group for tracking orders and executing trades globally in listed derivatives.