There is basically unlimited information online.
So “I post useful information” is not much of a reason to follow somebody anymore.
A feed can already give me ten explanations of the same thing before breakfast. Search can find the rest. AI can summarize the pile. If raw information was the scarce part, half the internet would be unemployed.
What people actually follow is the filter.
They follow the guy who notices a specific kind of scam before everyone else.
The girl who somehow finds every strange interior on Japanese real-estate sites.
The anonymous account that only cares about tiny crypto projects with deranged communities.
The person who sees the same news as everybody else but consistently points at the one part you almost skipped.
That is a filter.
Two accounts can have access to exactly the same information and still feel completely different because they decide different things are worth noticing.
One screenshots the chart.
One screenshots the replies.
One ignores the announcement entirely and posts the founder's old profile picture because that tells him more.
This is why accounts with a point of view can survive being “wrong” sometimes. You are not necessarily following them because they are a database. You are following the way they sort the database.
It also explains why generic educational accounts blur together so fast.
“Three things you need to know about X.”
Okay.
Which three?
Why those three?
What did you notice that I did not?
A good account becomes a tiny lens over the internet. After a while you can almost predict what it will pick up.
That is probably closer to what “personal brand” should mean anyway.
Not a logo. Not a content pillar spreadsheet.
A recognizable filter.