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LinkedIn is a social network that often gets lost in the shuffle with greater attention being paid to Facebook and Twitter, but LinkedIn is making money focusing on its niche of professional networking.

Marketing Shift, which notes that LinkedIn just came off its most successful quarter yet, takes a look at the network's "three-pronged" revenue model:

   1.  Upgraded Acccounts: Business, Business Plus and Pro Accounts provide extra features, including thorough lists of who's searched for you and your company.

   2. Hiring services.

   3. Advertising comparable to the Wall Street Journal Demographic

LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman recently appeared on Charlie Rose. Here is an excerpt (via Vator.tv) from that interview that showcases a little of his philosophy.

LinkedIn does not have the users of a Facebook, but its niche is much narrower than that. Considering that fact, they're doing quite well in the social networking space. According to MarketingShift, LinkedIn has a new user joining every second. The state of the economy and the amount of job losses are surely factors that further boost the usefulness of the kind of networking LinkedIn provides.