I know – there are hundreds of social media plugins available for WordPress. But what can I say – I’m a social media whore, and I love taking a look at what’s available to see if there is anything new for the discerning WordPress plugin aficionado (that’s you).

And I like Socialize. If you’re into social proof and increasing your subscribers (and what blogger isn’t), it is a plugin that you should take a look at.

Having recently covered Digg Digg, you may wonder what Socialize offers that my favorite social sharing plugin doesn’t. After all, they both allow you to display social buttons – how much functionality can you add to that?

Well, a little bit more actually. Socialize’s main selling point is its ability to add a simple Call To Action (CTA) at the bottom of your post screens. So instead of simply showing a row of sharing buttons (as you do with Digg Digg), you can display something like this:

So you get the sharing buttons, but you also get the opportunity to ask your reader to do something – like subscribe to your RSS feed or email newsletter.

Socialize offers a simple and effective way of amalgamating your social sharing options with a simple CTA. And since some of your readers will be actively looking to share your content, they will be naturally drawn to your adjacent CTA.

I don’t see this as a replacement for Digg Digg - it is more of an accompaniment. With a floating social share bar to the left of your screen, and sharing buttons at the bottom of the post with a CTA just waiting to convert your readers, you have a winning combination.

Download Socialize here.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of webtreats