A Blog for HVAC Professionals -- Not Social Media Junkies

By Trish Holder

First things first: Welcome to my new blog!  

More on that in a moment.  Right now I want to talk about personality assessment tests.  Most of us have taken at least one in our working lifetime, whether it was Myers-Briggs or a thinly vailed knock-off, which is what I took years ago as a young marketing director at an HVAC rep firm.

Like most personality assessments, the end result was a kind of “code” that represented my personality type. The code was based on a long list of behaviors and motivations that made me ME.  

I don’t remember my exact code, but I do remember that among other things the test concluded that I like to base my decisions on research rather than intuition. 

This is very true.  I am a gatherer of facts.  I carefully research airline rates… appliances… moisturizers, etc.   It is a trait that has served me well professionally because writing about engineered mechanical systems requires research – even study.  Fortunately, I enjoy the process.

How a Tireless Researcher Plans a Blog for Her Target Audience: the HVAC Industry

I was reminded of my personality assessment when I sat down to write my first Trish Holder, Marketing Communications blog – the one you are reading right now.

Obviously, I wasn’t going to just start typing. That’s just not how I roll.  Instead, the first thing I did was research blogs by firms that provide somewhat similar services to clients like my own.

Realizing my own company is rather unique in that I write a wide range of content for HVAC manufacturers and their reps, I had to “zoom out” a bit and look at the websites of some full service PR/advertising agencies with clients in the construction industry. 

What were these agencies writing about I wondered? And would I want to write about the same things?

I quickly surveyed the blogs of about five different PR/advertising agencies, all of which had clients in the mechanical engineering and/or construction industry. What I found was that these agencies like to write a LOT about marketing – particularly social media marketing. Almost all of them had posted recently about social media.

Now, it only makes sense that they would try to write posts that would interest their clients and perspective clients, right? But I had to wonder, are manufacturers of heat pumps and mini-split systems really interested in yet another blog about how to get more followers on their Twitter feed?

I didn’t think so. I think my clients are more interested in reading about topics that are more specifically attuned to their industry. Just as importantly, I think they might be comforted by the fact that I’m more interested in writing about topics attuned to their industry – even if I’m using social media to do it. After all, it's my industry too.

So that’s my plan for this blog, to write about topics that are specific to the HVAC and engineered systems community.  It doesn't mean I'll never write about social media, but if I do it will be about social media in the HVAC industry. 

Among other things, I look forward to sharing some of the interesting projects I've had the opportunity to write about. I also think it would be fascinating to initiate a dialogue about important issues like how to attract more young men and women to the industry and bolster the ever-dwindling pool of skilled mechanical labor.  

And while I intend to stay on point, I do reserve the right to occasionally insert a little comic relief – just for fun.  We all need that.