Impression Management

Impression management is a goal-directed conscious or unconscious process in which people attempt to influence the perceptions of other people about a person, object, or event. Impression management is performed by controlling or shaping information that is expressed through social interactions. It is usually used synonymously with self-presentation, in which a person tries to influence how others perceive their image. The notion of impression management also refers to practices in professional communication and public relations, where the term is used to describe the process of forming an organization’s

While impression management and self-presentation are often used interchangeably, some argue that they are not the same. In particular, Schlenker believed that self-presentation should be used to describe attempts to control”self-relevant” images projected in “real or imagined social interactions.” This was because people may manage impressions of entities other than themselves such as businesses, cities, and other individuals.