AGING ICON

The “Congratulations on Your Promotion” That Never Happened

The other day I updated my LinkedIn profile. Nothing dramatic and no big announcement of a career change. It was just a routine update, something many of us do from time to time to tweak our profile.

Within hours, my notifications started filling up. Lots of congratulations and best wishes. It seems like people were excited for me and felt the urge to let me know. I was happy to be acknowledged only there was one big problem. There was no promotion, no career change or big move.

The well wishes were based on the LinkedIn message but if anyone had taken a moment to actually look at my profile, they would have seen that nothing of the sort had happened. I had simply updated some information. Now before you think I’m annoyed, and yes, I’ll admit it is a bit of a pet peeve, this really got me thinking about something bigger. How often do we respond automatically instead of thoughtfully?

LinkedIn sends notifications suggesting that someone in our network has a new job, an anniversary, or a promotion. With one click, we can “congratulate” them. It takes two seconds, and we move on, but if we’re honest, many of those messages are written without ever looking at the person’s profile or understanding what actually happened.

What could have been a meaningful moment of connection becomes a reflex and reflexes rarely build real relationships but (spoiler alert),  isn’t that we’re supposed to be doing when on the platform.

I’m not suggesting we all stop acknowledging people because recognition and encouragement are wonderful things, but they mean more when they come from a place of genuine attention and not rote response.

Instead of the automatic “Congrats!”, what if someone wrote “It looks like you’ve been doing some interesting things lately. What are you working on now?”  It also would have been nice to hear someone’s comments on all of the  new videos that I posted, and even better, if they watched some of them and then commented. That’s the start of a real conversation and conversations are where relationships live and grow.

For those of us who believe in connection, especially as we continue to evolve in our careers and lives, this matters.

A thoughtful comment shows curiosity, a wonderful quality in people of all ages. Then, curiosity leads to conversation, and conversation leads to relationships and perhaps, but not in all cases, these conversations evolve into a new client or a solid referral.

Doing this might take longer, and I know we’re all pressed for time, but honestly, anything worth doing is worth doing the right way. (I can hear my Mother saying those very words to me!)

Respond like a human being, skip the emojis, read the post, take a look at the profile, and see how much more you get out of LinkedIn.

March 16, 2026 - Posted by Aging Icon | Uncategorized | business, congratulations, digital-marketing, LinkedIn, marketing, relationships, social media, writing