The use of sites like Facebook and Twitter is often derided, but research suggests that social media-savvy people are more likely to be helpful to others in the offline world.

The study surveyed 24,000 consumers across the 16 largest countries in the world and found that those “living on the cutting edge of social media tend to be more ‘pro-social’ than average, being more likely to do volunteer work, offer their seats in crowded places, lend possessions to others and give directions.”

The research was commissioned by Let’s Heal, an Amsterdam-based non-profit organisation that aims to help brands become more pro-social.

Rather than just helping others directly, pro-social brands facilitate their customers to help others, giving them the potential to mobilise a large force for good. A good example is Pampers, which has committed itself to ridding the world of tetanus by 2013 and promises to vaccinate one child for every pack it sells.

This latest study suggests that pro-social brands particularly appeal to keen users of social media. 72% of the social media-savvy prefer to buy pro-social brands compared with 61% of people less engaged with social media. Similarly, those who use sites such as Facebook and Twitter tend to prefer working for a pro-social company (81%) more than most (61%).

So do these findings show that social media makes us nicer people…or that nicer people use social media more…what do you think?

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