We all have a lot of things we need to do throughout the day, and often those things get in the way of the “real” things that need to get done… you know, like checking your Facebook feed!  Okay, I am just kidding, but it is true that Facebook has become a part of our lives and the importance of social networking continues to grow.  But to manage all of those social web properties can be really time consuming, so I am always looking for alternative ways to manage my social networking time.  I recently came across a web application called NutshellMail, and so far am really happy with the results.

In general, NutshellMail allows you to receive your Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace updates via your regular email inbox.  The set-up is incredibly easy -

takes probably five minutes at the most.  During the set-up process, you can tell NutshellMail which services you want to receive your email from and which time(s) you want to receive the email with your updates.  I selected to receive my Twitter and Facebook notifications three times a day (9:00 am, 3:00 pm, and 9:00 pm) every day of the week.  At those exact times, I get the email with all of my network’s updates!  The layout is clean and easy to follow and you get all of the relevant information you want, like @replies, direct messages, new followers, birthday notices, photos, friend requests, etc.  To be honest with you, when you are using NutshellMail, you really don’t have to login to those services anymore – what a time saver and productivity booster!  Even better, you still can interact with your friends using these social tools, all from right inside your email, without even having to open up Facebook or Twitter.  That is probably the coolest feature the program has.  When you click on a link to comment on one of your friend’s posts, it just triggers an email where you write your comment, then hit send, and NutshellMail takes care of telling Facebook or Twitter that you want to comment and what it is.  Very slick in my opinion.

Here is a couple of quick screen shots of what the email looks like from NutshellMail: