The term "ethical research" seems pretty straightforward, so why is it such a contentious topic of conversation among researchers? Just apply what your mother taught you to your research design, right? Well, not exactly.

When it comes to harnessing the power of social, there are obviously tools involved. The thing that will separate your insights from the rest is how you wield the sword — social mention tool — of your choosing. 

COVID-19 has disrupted everything, and the reaction of most businesses has been to focus inwardly. Everything shifted to how companies can continue to function and planning for the future beyond the pandemic seems to be delayed until things return to normal. But an inward focus overlooks the pandemic customer experience — and how your customers can shape the future.

At Bellomy, when we talk about social monitoring, we see it as fairly narrow in scope — focused on a company, brand, product, or campaign. At a high level, social media monitoring is used to assess and quantify the popularity of a brand or company. From our point-of-view social can do so much more than monitoring online conversations.

For about three years, I have met five friends for breakfast before work each Tuesday. The last seven weeks, however, we were forced to abandon the in-person greasy spoon meetup for virtual Zoom-and-eggs gatherings.

We've heard it for years now — a great employee experience leads to a great customer experience. But as your employees continue to take care of your customers during COVID-19, who will take care of your employees? Here's how going out of your way to support your team during this time can and will boost productivity, improve employee satisfaction, and increase loyalty.

Measuring customer experience has always been a top priority for businesses. For decades, surveys have been a tried and true way for receiving feedback for services and products. Early forms of customer satisfaction surveys suffered from their length.

As a usability testing moderator, you have a responsibility to your stakeholders to observe participant behavior and collect verbal feedback. But moderators also have a responsibility for managing the participant's experience and comfort during the session.

We often think of user experience (UX) testing as an accompaniment to design work. While that is certainly true, UX design and testing should be approached holistically. There are three phases in which UX research should be conducted — exploratory, design, and validation.