Social Networking Stocks Rise As Twitter Valuation Surges

Shares of LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD - News), the social networking site for professionals, are up 3% today as news of Twitter's soaring valuation has sparked a rally in social networking stocks. Twitter, owner of the popular microblogging service under the same name, is in talks to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in private financing, a move that could yield the company a valuation as high as $7 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.Investors are responding to the news and since Twitter is still a private company, the Social Networking Stocks Index is the beneficiary, up 3.6% on the day. Seven months ago, Twitter raised $200 million, valuing the company at $3.7 billion, the Journal reported.While other hot social networking names such as daily Web site Groupon and online video game producer Zynga prepare for widely anticipated IPOs, Twitter seems content to remain a private company for now as it searches for ways to monetize its user base and generate more revenue. The company has more than 200 million registered user accounts and is expected to post $150 million in ad revenue this year, up from $45 million in 2010, the Journal reported, citing research firm eMarketer.That revenue number is dwarfed by the $597 million Zynga had in 2010 and the $644.7 million Groupon reported in the first quarter.Looking at other Index members, Renren (NYSE: RENN - News), China's Facebook, is surging 9% while SINA (NASDAQ: SINA - News) and United Online (NASDAQ: UNTD - News) are both up 1%. Quepasa (AMEX: QPSA - News) is higher by 4%. Investors can track the Social Networking Stocks Index for performance trends and a suite of other metrics at tickerspy.com.Fun and informative, tickerspy.com is a free investing website where you can track multiple stock portfolios and compare against 250 proprietary Indexes tracking themes from dividends to ETFs to green energy to precious metals. Best of all, tickerspy.com lets you spy on the portfolios of nearly 3,000 Wall Street institutions and hedge funds and see graphs of their performance. Try tickerspy.com today and find out how you stack up against investing legends like Warren Buffett!