LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 800 million members. As a career-focused social media platform, LinkedIn provides users with the ability to create detailed professional profiles, connect with other professionals, find jobs, network, and more.
One of the features of LinkedIn is the ability for your connections to post on your profile for major milestones and work anniversaries. However, many users wonder – does LinkedIn automatically notify your connections about your work anniversary or do your connections have to manually post about it?
Does LinkedIn Automatically Notify Connections About Your Work Anniversary?
The short answer is no – LinkedIn does not automatically notify your connections about your work anniversaries or milestones. There is no built-in feature on LinkedIn that will automatically post on your profile when you reach a work anniversary or other career milestone.
LinkedIn does not keep track of when you joined a new company or reached a work anniversary. It is up to you as the user to update your profile with your work history and anniversary dates. LinkedIn also does not automatically prompt your connections to post congratulatory messages on special occasions.
The responsibility falls on you or your connections to recognize your work anniversaries and milestones and post congratulatory messages. LinkedIn simply provides the tools and platform to engage with your network – it does not automatically facilitate anniversary posts without user direction.
How Do Connections Post on Your LinkedIn Profile For Work Anniversaries?
Despite LinkedIn not automatically notifying your network about your milestones, connections can still recognize your work anniversaries and career achievements by manually posting on your profile.
On LinkedIn, when viewing your profile, connections have the ability to click the “Say Congrats” button to post a message directly to your profile timeline. They can write a customized message and select a career-related milestone like a work anniversary to celebrate.
These posts will be visible on your profile to all your connections. You will also be notified and have the ability to react, comment, and thank people for recognizing your achievement.
Some examples of work anniversary messages colleagues can post include:
- “Congratulations on your 5th work anniversary at XYZ Company!”
- “Wishing you a happy 2 year work anniversary at ABC Corporation. It’s been great working with you!”
- “Cheers to another incredible year! Congrats on your 1 year work anniversary.”
Posting on LinkedIn for work anniversaries is entirely opt-in and manual. But it can be a great way for colleagues, managers, and connections to recognize your accomplishments and loyalty.
How to Encourage Connections to Post on Your Work Anniversary
Since LinkedIn does not automatically prompt connections, you may need to remind people if you want congratulatory messages.
Here are some tips:
- Update your employment history and profile details to list your accurate start dates, anniversaries, and milestones.
- Use your profile headline or description to highlight upcoming work anniversaries.
- Share a post yourself announcing your milestone and work anniversary.
- Personally reach out to close connections asking them to post a congratulatory note on your profile.
- Set calendar reminders to follow up with your network about upcoming work anniversaries.
Proactively communicating your work anniversaries makes it more likely your connections will recognize them. But it does require effort on your part.
How Work Anniversary Posts Can Help Your Brand
Although not automatic, having colleagues post on your profile for work anniversaries can provide some benefits:
- Shows your loyalty and tenure at organizations.
- Displays that you are valued, recognized, and have strong relationships.
- Highlights your accomplishments and milestones to your network.
- Adds social proof and third-party validation to your brand.
- Shows you are invested in your career and engaging on LinkedIn.
Essentially, work anniversary posts help strengthen your personal brand and your reputation with your network. Just a few posts can improve how you are perceived professionally.
Should You Set Your LinkedIn Profile to Manually Approve Posts?
LinkedIn gives you the ability to set your profile to manually approve any posts before they appear publicly. This includes messages like work anniversary posts from your connections.
There are pros and cons to manual approvals:
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In most cases, approval is not required for basic work anniversary posts from colleagues and connections. But the option is there if you prefer to moderate you profile closely.
How to Thank Connections for Work Anniversary Messages
When colleagues post well-wishes for your work anniversary, be sure to thank them!
On LinkedIn you can:
- Like or react to their post
- Write a comment on the post to say thanks
- Send them a private message to express your gratitude
- Share their post to show appreciation
- Post your own message tagging them back
Replying promptly makes your connections feel appreciated while potentially encouraging more posts in the future.
Who Can See Your Work Anniversary Posts?
Any posts made directly on your LinkedIn profile, including work anniversary messages, are visible to your 1st degree connections.
Your 1st degree connections include:
- Anyone who is a direct connection in your network
- Connections of your connections (2nd degree)
- Members who follow you or your updates
- Users who view your public profile
Essentially, your entire LinkedIn network and anyone looking at your profile can see posts made on your profile timeline. This allows work anniversary messages to be viewed broadly.
Can You Share Work Anniversary Posts?
If you receive a great work anniversary post, you may want to share it to extend the visibility. LinkedIn allows you to easily share posts made on your profile.
To share a post:
- Click the share icon on the post.
- Choose where you want to share – your own profile, a group, or to your connections.
- Add any comments you want to include.
- Click share.
Sharing will showcase your milestone to an even wider audience while spreading positive interactions.
Should You Post About Your Own Work Anniversaries?
Posting about your own work milestones is totally appropriate on LinkedIn. It allows you to shape the narrative and fully convey your accomplishments.
Tips for self-posting work anniversary updates:
- Thank colleagues, managers, mentors who helped you achieve the milestone.
- Share wins, career development, or domain expertise gained on the job.
- Reflect on learnings, challenges overcome, and future goals.
- Invite others to post their own work anniversaries and milestones.
- Use visuals like graphics, images, or charts to make it engaging.
Self-posting provides an opportunity to build your brand and showcase your best assets to your network.
Example Work Anniversary Post
Today marks my 4 year work anniversary at XYZ Company! It’s been an amazing ride helping build and grow this incredible brand.
I’m proud of launching our social media channels from 0 to over 500k followers and leading innovative digital marketing campaigns that drove a 200% increase in revenue.
Thanks to my wonderful colleagues, mentors, boss and team for always believing in me. I’ve learned so much here and can’t wait for the future!
What work anniversaries are you celebrating? Share your milestones below!
Can You Delete or Hide Old Work Anniversary Posts?
Over time, you may accumulate many work anniversary posts on your LinkedIn profile. If old posts are no longer relevant, you can either delete or hide them.
To delete a post:
- Click the 3 dots icon in the top right of the post.
- Select “Delete post.”
- Confirm deletion.
This will permanently remove the post from LinkedIn.
To hide a post:
- Click the 3 dots icon in the top right of the post.
- Select “Hide from profile.”
- The post will only be visible to you.
Hiding outdated posts can tidy up your profile and keep the focus on your latest roles and milestones.
Mistakes to Avoid When Posting Work Anniversaries
While work anniversary posts are generally positive, there are some mistakes to avoid:
- Exaggerating or misrepresenting work achievements
- Sharing sensitive or confidential company information
- Making critical or negative remarks about employers
- Using inappropriate language or sarcasm
- Posting too frequently about minor milestones
Keep posts focused on your accomplishments, development, and positives from the work experience.
Conclusion
In summary, LinkedIn does not automatically post about your work anniversaries without direct user action. But colleagues and connections can manually share celebratory messages on your profile timeline.
Proactively sharing your milestones and encouraging posts from your network can showcase your skills, commitment and personal brand. Work anniversary posts help build engagement and relationships on the platform.
While not built-in functionality, with some effort, you can leverage LinkedIn to obtain valuable social proof and recognition for your career achievements and loyalty.