A pandemic and popular social media outlet TikTok forced one local business to get creative to grow during a difficult time.
After a few posts on the latest trendy social media application, Sweet Cedar Soap Company saw post views of over 4,000, then 6000 before hitting it big with a post with over 421,000 views.
How did the company get to be a big social media presence? The journey began on a leap of faith after experiencing burnout after a lifelong devotion to the restaurant business, Erin Lovell started her soap company, Sweet Cedar Soap Co.
Lovell stated that originally had a successful bakery business, attributing that success to her skills as a chef at The Greenbrier, along with her lifelong focus in the restaurant business.
“It was at that point where my husband had cancer, and I became pregnant at 44 where I decided I wanted to leave the restaurant business,” Lovell said.
Lovell continued, “I was at the point of burnout and my husband and I decided that we did not want to be involved with the restaurant business for the next 20 to 30 years. We owned some industrial property and took a chance. It turns out we made the right decision.”
From that decision, Sweet Cedar Soap Co. was born.
Lovell is not alone in running the company, her daughter Sophie Bowes also plays a key role into the operations of the company.
The soap that is sold is made through cold process.
Other products available include lotions, bath and body products, candles and skincare products.
Like all businesses, Lovell’s company had to navigate its way through the COVID-19 pandemic. Lovell said that she had no complaints as the company was able to see success during this time.
“We opened the doors two days before we faced closure due to the pandemic,” Lovell said.
Strategies that she implemented included some delivery, online ordering and contactless pickup. Lovell said that online orders have been very successful as the online clientele is nationwide, and local traffic consistent as well.
Social media, especially TikTok is what Lovell credits to organically building the national clientele base.
“We just always use social media. When TikTok blew up during the pandemic, I noticed there were a lot of videos where people were making things. I thought, we make things, so I thought we should do videos of the behind-the-scenes of what we do,” Lovell said.
“We also posted a video our filling machine filling jars of lotion that got over one million views now, so that kind of started to get people to order from all over the country,” Lovell said. “We also use Instagram and Facebook, we have a pretty big presence there. We try to do it all as far as social media goes. As long as there is a free social media outlet, we’ll use that to reach a lot of people.”
Since then they have amassed a following of almost 24,000 people and over 112,000 page likes on TikTok, over 1,000 followers on Instagram and over 2,000 page likes on Facebook.
Lovell credited the social media outlets to allow the soap business to “organically grow non-locally.”
In addition to TikTok (@sweetcedarsoap), Lovell’s company is on Facebook (Sweet Cedar Soap Company) and Instagram (@sweetcedarsoap).
For more information on the company and its products, you can log on to www.sweetcedarsoap.com.
