I’m not going to lie. Up until recently (I’m talking within the past couple of years) I really, really hated hashtags. They popped up across all kinds of social medias, used by people who would hashtag things like #duckdynasty4lyfelololol and #omgyurnotgonnabelievewhatsarahsaidtomelastnightwhenshewasplaaaaaastered. The only thing they made me aware of was who to stay away from.

This was, however, before I managed to get snared in the happy madness that is Twitter. Before I discovered that there were hashtags that made sense. That actually using hashtags made sense! It was revolutionary. What I once thought of as a pointless waste of space suddenly revealed itself to be a portal to conversations, discussions, and dissections of truly relevant material. I stumbled across #amwriting and was instantly submerged in writers helping one another with plot details and encouraging them to finish their stories and poems. I loved it! I immediately dove into the discussion and haven’t looked back. That doesn’t mean, however, that I haven’t looked from side to side. If #amwriting was a great filter of writing discussion, I began to wonder what other key hashtags existed that I didn’t know about. Finding them was no simple task. That is, until I discovered this brilliant website:

http://hashtagify.me

Hashtagify utilizes algorithms and trending hashtags to match your favorite hashtags with others that share very similar interests. #Amwriting leads to #WritingTips, which leads to #MSWL – an invaluable hashtag that I just recently discovered where literary agents head to twitter and post what kinds of manuscripts they want the most (MSWL – Manuscript Wish List). I wouldn’t have made this connection (or even HEARD of #MSWL) without hashtagify’s awesome trail of breadcrumbs.

So if you’re a social media fiend and have a plethora of favorite hashtags, give Hashtagify a shot and see if something new trends your way.