I've been asked about the social media icon bar that I've recently installed along the side of my posts (this, of course, could change at any time). 
It's called Sharebar.
How to Install Sharebar
Search for it via your WordPress Dashboard by going to Plugins –> Add New –> Sharebar.
Once it's installed and activated, you can configure it (i.e. choose which buttons will show up, make the Sharebar show up on the right or left side of your page, change the color of the bar, etc.) by going to Dashboard –> Settings –> Sharebar.
Once there, you'll see the list of "Available Buttons" you can choose to show. (If you want to add a button of your own, you can do that too. You'll just need to get the appropriate code.)
To change the location of the bar on your page, change the color, border and other things like that, click the "Settings" link at the top of the window:
Update: Several of you have asked how to add the Pin It button to the Sharebar. Tom from Pinwire.com has posted about this (he commented below) but I'm including a link to his tutorial here too: Add Pinterest Button to Sharebar. Thanks Tom!
FURTHER READING:
How to Add Social Media Icons to Your Sidebar
Here at BloggingWithAmy you'll find tips, tools & tutorials about blogging and websites. In plain English. Want to 
Amy – how funny! I was just searching your site to find a way to add a floating button for subscribing to my blog. I'm wondering if that would be the better way to go – what do you think? And do you think you could find a way to do it without a plugin? I checked out a few sites, but they seemed to have things linked to their sites so I am not comfortable with that.
Which do you think would be better for the life of a blog – a floating share button or a floating subscribe bar? And also, I know you are not an advocate of lots of plugins. Do you think this is a good one to get?
Thanks as always!
I'm not Amy, but I think your site is Gorgeous.
I'd add the floating share bar and leave the subscribe buttons where they are-which I think is a good spot. That's just me talking, though….
Maybe Amy could do a future post on plug-in downsides. I think she's said that the concern is they slow loading speed. I'm not sure what number is too many, though.
Yes, plugins can slow things down so that's why I only use the minimum. I seem to have about 8-10 at once (although there's nothing magical about that number…just what works for me).
I know you could do it without a plugin—depends on how much time you want to devote to figuring it out.
I think either would be good but it would depend on how your blog was setup and how it fit with your theme. Knowing me, I'd probably also opt for the thing that was easiest to implement.
Yes, I do recommend using plugins only for the essentials. I'm using this plugin so I guess that tells you something.
That is a great idea! I like that a lot better then the others I've seen. My blog is something I want to work on in the new year, I think I'm going to have to add the share bar too! Thanks
(I love your blog!)
Woohoo! (Thanks, Carla.)
I love these things and it's cool that Pininterest is part of the bar. I know several people who use them, but on one blog that I follow, the bar disappears in IE, but it's visible in Chrome. I'm typing in IE now and I see yours. That's curious; so I wonder if it has to do with how IE perceives a blog's width.
I'll have to check my blog in each of the big browers to make sure it shows up for me. I really love how it trails down.
I think it has more to do with screen resolution than it does browser. Although I wouldn't be surprised if IE was buggy (I do my very best to pretend IE doesn't exist – lol). On my laptop, I see it just fine, but if I'm on our (old) desktop, I can't see the Sharebar on my site.
I'm using Chrome and the new side bar hasn't shown up fully for me since you changed to it. I view your site on two different computers and it doesn't show up on either. On my lap top it makes it difficult to scroll through your posts (it skips to the comment section when I try to scroll past). Both of my computers are pretty old though.
Thanks for the heads-up Jennifer.
I was going to put one of these types on my blog, but I felt like it was too much. I do however have "stuff" in both of my margins..Maybe I better clean up my act
I really do like the clean look:)
Blessings!
hmmm…would you be interested in sharing how you got the Pinterest button on yours?
I can't get the pin it button to work. I thought it was awesome that there would be a share with the pin it, but can't get it to work.
This button may just be my downfall! I've installed it, activated, selected my buttons, and refreshed my page but no Sharebar shows up at all. Any ideas?
hey Jen! I noticed on mine that you have to go to the actual "post page" for the sharebar to show up – not just your blog page. Does that help?
It did! I noticed it showed up today when I loaded my site back up. Thanks!
Yay!
Thanks for jumpin' in, Christa! Yes, that's right, it shows up on just single posts/pages automatically if you checked the boxes in the plugin settings. You can also turn it on manually too.
I love this new plugin, Amy! It's fun to go in & see so easily which posts are being shared frequently & such. My only issue is that I've gone into settings & tried numerous times to change the buttons that are shown on the ShareBar. I'm trying to have just the Share, Tweet & Pin It button (I added the code in for that one). However, it keeps reverting back to the main default buttons with 2 FB, tweet & Digg it buttons. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong in that it won't change. Do you have any suggestions?
In Settings, make sure the ones you want to show up are "enabled" and then set which position you want them to be shown in (1,2,3,etc.).
Thanks Amy — the weird thing is I have all that set up & it shows the correct positions in the Settings but then reverts back to the default in the post view. Very strange.
And I know it probably goes without saying, but you're saving the changes, yes? (I only ask because, um, I've been known to forget that little, head-smacking step on more than one occasion myself. *snort*)
Hey Jen, how did you add the code for the pin it button?
I have a short tutorial on how to add the Pinterest button to sharebar here: http://www.pinwire.com/entertainment/add-pintrest-button-to-sharebar/
Awesome, thanks Tom! I updated my post here to include your link and shared it on Twitter and FB too.
thanks!!!
Hello!
So glad I found your site… I just started my blog this week… and I am wondering if I need to upgrade to Pro to use plugins? I dont seem to have "plugins" in my dashboard..unless I am overlooking it. Thanks!
Hi Traci, it sounds like you're using WordPress.com (as opposed to a self-hosted WP site). Unfortunately, WP.com doesn't allow you to customize very much. I wrote a bit about the difference between the two on my FAQ page.
Hi, Amy,
Is there a way to get Sharebar to show up on the home page, or does it only work the individual posts and pages?
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I added the sharebar after I got this post by email the other day, but was so frustrated that there was no pinterest button. Thank you for adding the link to Pinwire's instructions, Amy!
Shannon
You're welcome!
My share bar doesn't show up on my posts…it is all white with no buttons. So it is "sorta" there….hmmm
I just installed ShareBar, but I can't seem to get it to appear on any of my posts or pages. I've tried switching the settings on and off to see if that does anything and editing the sizes some as well as clearing the cache. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong since it still doesn't seem to be showing up. Do you have any suggestions?
This is the best step by step explanation. Thanks do you have how to adding buttons the way you do on top right of your site. I cant find out how to do it without adding separate little buttons, I want it all look alike.
Thanks
This post about adding social media icons to your sidebar might help!
Thanks so much for this post! I have added sharebar to my site and follow the steps to add the pin it button. It is enabled and showing up but nothing happens when I click on it??? I installed it on a client's site and am having the same issue. I have copied/ pasted the code Tom has on his post and triple checked. Any ideas why the pin it button won't work?
Thanks!!!
Hmmm…not sure. Strange. Is there any support for the plugin? I'd ask there.
I'd ask in Tom's comments.
Hi Amy! Thanks for your reply. I figured it out & it's the oddest thing. I installed it on a new clients WP last night and was working fine. Then after I finished the install it didn't work on her blog anymore. This led me to realize it had to be a plugin causing the issue since it worked before I installed the other plugins. After deactivating the few plugins that I installed, it turned out to be the plugin "Google Analytics for WP" Something in that plugin must have been blocking the javascript… I have been meaning to put the tracking code in the headers anyways so that we have 1 less plugin we are running I just hadn't got around to it yet. It was a good excuse to finally do it though.
It's amazing to me how these little quirks and kinks happen in WP. If anyone else has the same issue, here's the solution! Thanks! 
Glad you figured it out! Way to go!!
Hello Amy –
How do I add the Google +1 icon? Thank you for sharing this – I was looking for something with Pinterest!!
I think I figured this out!
I cannot get the StumbleUpon icon to show up for the life of me…even though I clearly have it enabled! Also, any idea how to get the +1 icon on there? I did a search but couldn't find a code (although I looked very briefly). Thanks in advance!
Hi Amy,
I've installed the sharebar too and although it worked fine for me in my MacBook Pro laptop and my old PC, in both Firefox and Safari browsers, I've had complaints from viewers that the sharebar moves over to cover the text and can't be removed by clicking on any of the social networks. It disappears and then comes right back in the content area. And on my settings, I made sure that it was over quite a long way from the margin. So, I've disabled it for the time being until I can figure a work around. Have any idea what's going wrong here? Thanks.
Ok so i have this downloaded and working. BUT it's the wrong size. Mine shows up on the left and it's cutting off part of the box. Here is a sample post to show you: http://anappleadaywisdom.com/2012/03/ebookrelease/
How do I fix this issue??
Is there a way to set this up so it will show on my home page? Or is this only for single posts? Also, I would love to find a way to add a print icon to the bar.
Awesome plugin and was worried for not being able integrate Pin it button. Tom's solution is a workaround but still, I hope there will be an update in plugin with integrated Pin it button.