Last night’s not-so groundbreaking news was that Microsoft magnate Bill Gates has joined micro-blogging site Twitter. To many, this is a long-overdue endorsement of the now relatively mainstream brand.

How does this affect Gates’ reputation? Well, apart from the flurry of blogs and online media keen to report the news, it has little affect. The billionaire businessman has given up Facebook in the past (twice), switched to LinkedIn and dabbled in other social networks – all producing headlines, but having little impact on the Microsoft or Gates brand.

In fact, all it’s done is produce a slight glitch in the reputation of the aforementioned sites within a certain set of senior executives that take Gates’ opinion as final.

So, if Gates gets fed up with Twitter, or finds it a “hassle having too many friends” – as he did with Facebook – will the site see any depreciation in sign ups? It’s unlikely. Celebrities, brands and businesses alike have come, gone, used Twitter well and terribly. Before deleting his account, Ricky Gervais denounced it as ‘undignified’, Lily Allen did the same, citing an obsession with what other people were saying about her, and now Katie Price is considering taking the same road after receiving ‘negative feedback’ from her followers.

It causes ebbs and flows in terms of people signing up, but the fact is; famous people might influence some users into leaving or joining Twitter, but the natural acceleration of a network like Twitter is more because of personal recommendation from friends – be it business or personal – than anything else.