The raise of Social Media usage by both consumers and companies seem to affect consumer behaviour.
Also, Social Media influence the way consumers behave during the different stages of their purchase decision-making processes. Wheat and Dodd (2009, p3) quoted Carson, the president of Online International Nielsen, ‘the explosion in Consumer Generated Media over the last couple of years means consumers' reliance on word-of-mouth in the decision-making process, either from people they know or online consumers they don't, has increased significantly.’