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from www.nypost.com – Get it straight — Marc Bell isn’t a porn impresario.

That, at least, is what the CEO of FriendFinder Networks — the Web-focused owner of Penthouse magazine that tried unsuccessfully to acquire Playboy last year — is trying to tell Wall Street.

Bell, in an interview with The Post yesterday, lamented that FriendFinder — whose core business is a collection of online social networks that range from racy AdultFriendFinder.com to Christian hookup site BigChurch.com — has seen its stock slide 42 percent since an initial public offering on May 11.

Meanwhile, shares of professional social network LinkedIn have surged 69 percent following an IPO launched more than a week after FriendFinder’s.

“We were the first social-networking IPO — not LinkedIn,” Bell told The Post, upset that most of the media world glossed over his public debut and gave LinkedIn the “first” title.

FriendFinder shares have failed to firm up, according to some critics, because of what one investment banker called the “Smut Factor.”

“This is a company that combined the hottest business on Wall Street — social networking — with the most radioactive on Wall Street — porn,” according to the banker, who wasn’t involved in the FriendFinder IPO.

Bell counters that Penthouse accounts for just 3 percent of FriendFinder’s business. And while there’s plenty of smut on a litter of FriendFinder sites that until recently included FacebookOfSex.com, Bell says it’s the customers who are posting the sexy pictures and messages — not the company.

“We make the software, we’re just a platform,” Bell said. “The consumers provide all the content.”

That argument has failed to persuade enough investors, Bell admits. During a road show leading up to last month’s IPO, Bell concluded that FriendFinder was an investment that “about half of Wall Street won’t touch — like liquor and tobacco.”

On the bright side, Bell says that half of Wall Street is “a big place,” and downplays the idea that a fear of filth is what’s weighing on the shares.

“We just did a very poor job getting the message out ahead of time,” Bell said.

The heart of the message, he says, is numbers-driven.

FriendFinder — which says its sites boast more than three times as many unique users as LinkedIn — generated more than twice as much cash flow as LinkedIn last year on 40 percent more revenue, according to Bell.

While not yet profitable, FriendFinder’s fast-improving results will fuel an eventual rebound for the slumping stock, according to Bell, who recently has scooped up 100,000 shares.

In addition to a $100 million marketing budget, FriendFinder aims to fuel growth with more acquisitions — some of which may be adult-oriented sites, Bell says.

At the same time, however, Bell denies being any kind of expert on the porn industry. Had he won Playboy last year, Bell said he would have “sold off the assets” including the magazine and turned it into a licensing franchise.

“I’m an engineer,” Bell said.