I was reluctant to see the movie Eat, Pray, Love, because I thought I'd wilt in the sadness that comes from missing a place, a home. But all it did was bring back sweet memories, especially the one that knocked me off one life track smack dab onto another.

During the three years I lived in Bali in the early 1990s, I didn't meet a dashing Brazilian. I didn't go to Ketut Liyer for a reading (although I met him once at a ceremony). I went to learn more about the people and their culture, and to see if I could support myself by freelance science writing. I lucked out -- living in Bali was inexpensive.

Bali rice paddies by jestevens

The event that started the long road to WellCommons began early one morning. I awoke in my bed to hear a little boy crying in a house adjacent to the inn in which I was staying while looking for a permanent place to live. (In this part of Bali, many homes have bamboo walls, which means you can hear everything that goes on in your neighbors' homes.) The boy's crying was the fussy cry of an exhausted child, the kind of blubbering that means "I'm tired. I don't want to get dressed and go to school." Then I heard his dad, Made, yell at him (pronunciation: Mah-day). That got me to sit up, because it wasn't too often I'd heard a

First of all, your customers are talking. Whether you hear them or not. How you handle that conversation sets the stage for all future communication. As I speak with businesses about social media and how they can use it to their advantage, one of the concerns that I hear is, "I don't want people getting on my Facebook page and complaining about my business"

I came across a great post about how businesses should behave on social media. This comes from MediaPost's Social Media Insider. I think it makes some great points for everyone to consider. We would like to hear what your experience has been. Please comment below or contact me at abrewer@ljworld.com.

Two Golden Rules For Companies On Social Media

As we've talked with many of the organizations that have group pages on WellCommons, it's been clear that those who don't have a social media policy could benefit from one.

Having guidelines for the entire staff to use would free up the outreach coordinator or marketing director or public relations director -- whoever's in charge of communicating with the public -- from having to monitor every single bit of information that staff members produce. It would let them sleep better at night, too.

I mean, if Hallmark can develop a social media policy for its entire workforce of 8,400 people, then anyone can...and should.

To get you started, here's an article from Mashable about the 10 must-haves for your social media policy. At the end of the article, you'll find the social media policy from Headset Bros. (btw, if you haven't checked out Mashable, it's the go-to source for anything social media.)

Here's a link to our social media policy.

introduction to social media by jestevens

And, if you'd like a quick run-through of social media basics, here's a link to our own Whitney Mathews' social media tutorials. (Whitney's the online editor for LJWorld, and a social media expert.)

We'll put all these links and more into a file in resources in this About section.

Today marks the end of my stint as a summer intern here at WellCommons. I have greatly enjoyed my time here and appreciated getting to know so many people in our health and wellness community.

Numerous people in Lawrence are striving for better health and I was able to witness many of these initiatives firsthand during my summer here. From people making a commitment to using local food to those ensuring the availability of physical fitness opportunities, there is someone passionate about every aspect of wellness.

I learned so much from the staff here at WellCommons and the Lawrence Journal-World. I hope everyone appreciates all they are doing for our community as much as I do.

Although this will be my last post as an employee, I will continue to keep up-to-date with the site and watch its growth. Please feel free to continue to contact me through messages on WellCommons and keep posting and commenting on the site! You, as a member, are helping make our community a healthier and more enjoyable place to live!

Stay well,

Ursula

We've been abuzz lately — as staff — because our community here is growing rapidly.

But we haven't shared the good news with all of you, the people who actually make up the community.

Let me show you two graphs:

WellCommons Pageviews by Month by jkealing

WellCommons Visits by Month by jkealing

As you can see, with the exception of a little dip in visits in May, all the numbers are heading upward. I expect July to meet or exceed the traffic levels we saw in July.

But WellCommons isn't just about traffic. It's about participation, and activity.

Our data indicate that 238 people have taken the time to make a profile on WellCommons. In an average week, about 100 different people post a comment, write a post or join a group. Many more (thousands) take the time to read these posts that are written.

Since May 1, when we started collecting this data, 355 different users have written a comment, written a post or joined a group. We have a total of 84 groups on our site now, with the vast majority having been created by our users. That number goes up practically every day.

The good news here is our community is growing, but it will be most effective in making Douglas County a healthier place when we can bring an even bigger slice of the community together here.

Tell your friends, tell your colleagues, tell your customers. Let's keep WellCommons growing strong.

1 p.m. update: We've now completed this maintenance.

We'll be doing some maintenance on our sites at 12:45 this afternoon, meaning our sites may go down for as much as 10 minutes at that time.

Since midnight, we've been getting sporadic site overload errors that last a minute or less. To correct that problem, we're switching to a back-up server. That can't be done seamlessly however, leading to the downtime.

We try to avoid maintenance in the middle of the day, but because of when this problem cropped up, it's unavoidable.

We regret this problem and appreciate your patience.

WellCommons was honored Monday as a "notable entry" in the annual Knight-Batten Award competition.

Though WellCommons wasn't among the top seven entrants, the site was among 30 others that were singled out for praise by the panel of judges.

Taking top honors was an effort by the Sunlight Foundation to add data and context to the coverage of a government event — coverage of the health reform summit — to make it more consumable for the audience.

ProPublica, 48HR Magazine, The Obameter from the St. Petersburg Times, Ushahidi Haiti, Publish2 News Exchange and The Takeaway took the next level of awards.

The Knight-Batten Awards reward news and information efforts that create opportunities to involve citizens in public issues and supply opportunities for participation.

Why Wellcommons? This is one reason why!

This March, a report on chronic disease and the Internet by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the California HealthCare Foundation showed that people fighting such illnesses are using social media to find information and connect with others who suffer similar ailments.

http://mashable.com/2010/07/13/social-media-health-trends/

Great news for all WellCommons users: you can now upload photos straight from your computer to a WellCommons post.

You still are able to use the old copy-and-paste a URL from Flickr or LJWorld method, but you now have the convenience of uploading straight to our site. Videos cannot yet be uploaded and still use the same URL method.

The process if fairly self-explanatory, but here's a quick how-to:

Click on 'Upload a photo' and browse for the photo you want to upload from your computer. You can add a title, credit, caption and tags. Click 'Upload photo' and you're done!

Questions? Comment on this post and I'll answer.

To add a photo to your WellCommons post, you can upload photos straight from your computer or use links from one of our sister sites and Flickr.

You still are able to use the previous methods, explained below, but you now have the convenience of uploading straight to our site. Videos cannot yet be uploaded and still use the same URL method.

Here's a quick how-to:

Click on 'Upload a photo' and browse for the photo you want to upload from your computer.

Use the "Upload a photo" option to add a photo to your posts directly from your computer. You can also add a link to a photo or video that will embed the object into your post. by Whitney Mathews

You can add a title, credit, caption and tags.

Fill in the fields and upload your photo to your post. A link will appear in the content field. by Whitney Mathews

Click 'Upload photo' and you should see a preview of the photo below the content field.

A small preview of your photo appears below the content box. by Whitney Mathews

When you save the post as a draft or publish it to the site, the photo will embed where you placed the link in the text.

After you save as a draft or publish, the photo embeds in your post. by Whitney Mathews

There are two other ways to add photos to WellCommons that only involves copy/paste.

Our system currently embeds photo links from these sites. There are step-by-step instructions for using each one below:

• Journal-World websites (LJWorld.com, KUSports.com, WellCommons.com & Lawrence.com)
• Flickr (sign up for a free account)

THINGS TO KNOW NOW:

• In the preview below the content field, your photo may appear smaller than it will once you have saved or published your post.
• Once you SAVE AS DRAFT or PUBLISH your post, the photo will automatically embed in the location where you placed the link.
• You can arrange photos in your post by copying/pasting the link in different locations in the body (e.g. moving the photo from the beginning of the text to the end.)
• You can have multiple photos in a single post.
• You can have both photos and videos in a single post.
• The same method for adding photos to posts works in comments on other WellCommons posts.

• You cannot embed Journal-World photo galleries at this time. Only individual photos.

• You can use any of the links on our sister sites, Flickr and YouTube with the "Link to a photo or video" option.

1) Journal-World websites
If you see a photo you would like to use on a Journal-World site, click the photo to go to the individual photo page.

Photos from Journal-World websites can be placed into WellCommons posts by going to the individual photo page and copying/pasting the link into the body of your post. by Whitney Mathews

Then copy the link to this page. To copy, go to the address bar of your web browser and select Edit > Copy or hit CTRL + C on your keyboard.

Highlight and copy the URL of the photo on a Journal-World site to add it to your WellCommons post. by Whitney Mathews

Paste the link in the body of your post. To paste, select Edit > Paste in your web browser or hit CTRL + V on your keyboard.

Select the body of your WellCommons post and paste the URL to the photo. When you save the post as a draft or publish the post, the photo will embed in your entry. by Whitney Mathews

When you Save as Draft or Publish your post, the embedded photo appears with the caption and photographer like this:

You can only view the embedded photo in your WellCommons post once you Save as Draft or Publish your entry. by Whitney Mathews

2) Flickr photos
If you don't have one, you can sign up for a free Flickr account or use other users' photos from Flickr. If you already have a Yahoo! email address, the sign-up process will be easier. With Flickr, you can upload your own photos and use them rather than picking a photo of a Journal-World website.

Go to the individual photo page for any Flickr photo and copy the link in the address bar of your web browser (highlighted in blue). To copy, go to the address bar of your web browser and select Edit > Copy or hit CTRL + C on your keyboard.

Highlight the individual photo URL of any Flickr photo to use in your WellCommons post. by Whitney Mathews

Paste the link to the Flickr photo in the body of your WellCommons post. To paste, select Edit > Paste in your web browser or hit CTRL + V on your keyboard.

by Whitney Mathews

When you Save as Draft or Publish your post the embedded photo appears and credits the original source like this photo from my friend Zach:

When you Save as Draft or Publish your WellCommons post, the photo will embed and credit the original source. by Whitney Mathews

Hint: It is also possible to use HTML code for embedding and aligning images, if you're fancy like that.

Please leave any comments if you have questions on posting photos!