O uso do instagram pela administração pública como ferramenta de gerenciamento de impressões no município de Palmas-TO

Abstract

The objective of this research was to identify how the public administration employs Instagram as an impression management tool in the municipality of Palmas-TO. To this end, a qualitative approach was adopted, in which posts were evaluated from the perspective of impression management, with document analysis and content analysis of posts published between June and October 2025. Posts were selected according to criteria of thematic relevance, public impact, and association with the local sociopolitical context. The posts were also measured and organized into tables. Initially, in the analysis of the research, the highly relevant sociopolitical events that occurred during the specified period, which impacted both the entity and its constituents, were demonstrated. After the analysis, it was observed that the entity applied assertive and defensive impression management strategies in several publications. Among these, the strategies of organizational promotion, exemplification, boasting, and concealment were identified, mainly used to strengthen a perception of competence and mitigate the negative consequences linked to the episode of instability in the municipal government. The adoption of these tactics exposed an attempt to recover the institution's credibility and regain its legitimacy before its citizens, demonstrating that Instagram acted as an indispensable tool for reaffirming the continuity of authority. However, it was concluded that the institution possesses selective transparency, predominantly directed towards publicizing management achievements and neutralizing episodes detrimental to the entity's reputation, indicating that the use of social media by the public administration aims to create and control a positive impression of itself by third parties, lacking reliability to address potentially problematic issues of public interest with citizens.