I am not really sure if this is a k2 issue or a template issue. I noticed on my k2 items, the social share/like buttons at the bottom of the page disappeared. After playing around, I discovered this behavior is tied into the "Hits". When I set "Hits" to not show, the social icons disappear. When "Hits" are set to display, the social icons appear. Any idea how to correct this issue? I'd like to not show Hits due to caching, however, I want the social items to appear.

This is a template issue.
The check on the template whether to show/hide the hits element also contains the social sharing block.

Krikor,
The template developer has been responsive but I have run into an issue. I found a thread on these forums where there was a similar problem. I am now unable to find that thread. In that post, someone (possibly you) posted a URL to someone's website that overrode the template and the icons were there...this is how it was determined to be a template problem. I'd like to show the same url for my website to show the template developer. Do you know what I'm referring to with the forced template url without changing the default website template?

I am sorry but it is impossible to remember all of my posts.
I would suggest doing a Google Search.

I wasn't asking you to recall every one of your posts. I was asking if you knew the manual url one could enter to bypass the template and force the generic template. I saw this procedure used to determine if something was a k2 issue or template issue. Based on your response, it appears that you do not know (sorry I asked).

Does anyone else know how this is done?

if you are using SEF
?tempate=system

if not
&template=system

In this case, it appears to possibly be a k2 issue and not a template issue:

Regular template:
blueribbonproject.org/healing/suicide-prevention/18-suicide-prevention/152-preventing-suicides-a-why-i-do-what-i-do-at-the-injury-center.html

system template override:
blueribbonproject.org/healing/suicide-prevention/18-suicide-prevention/152-preventing-suicides-a-why-i-do-what-i-do-at-the-injury-center.html?template=system

I do not want "Hits" to show as I use cache...but would like the social sharing block to show. The current setting for "Hits" is set to Off but all social sharing is set to show. The social sharing reappears when I select "Hits" to show and disappears when it's off. If this were a template issue, the system template should show it properly, correct?

Ok...I was able to narrow this down a little. In the category configuration, it has this problem. When I go to the actual item and change the "Inherit from Category" to "Show", it works as it should...so it's narrowed down to the category settings that are then inherited. Any suggestions?

The social buttons are displaying fine with K2's default template.
This means that if your category's settings are correct, it is a template issue.