"It's not our primary market per se," he says, "but it's another market we're going after. Why not? It doesn't cost us anything."
Malis at MGH, who happens to be Goff's boss, also didn't know what the young men were up to - though the tourism agency is an MGH client. But he agrees with Noonan that Baltimore got something from the experience - albeit something hard to quantify.
"In that space, to that audience, Baltimore won," he says. "They're going to think Baltimore is cool. And that may affect their decisions."
As squishy a business as it is to measure gain from a presence on sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, Malis is convinced that it's important. Social media is part of "everything" his staff is working on.
As Rowe says, "It's not about putting up a billboard on I-83 anymore. It's about building relationships with people."
At last fall's Fells Point Fun Festival, for instance, BACVA worked with MGH to create a "flashmob" event, where they encouraged people through social media sites to show up on Thames Street at a certain time and do the dance made famous by Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video 25 years ago.
Yes, it was silly. And no, it had nothing to do with Baltimore tourism. But when the dance finished, they revealed a sign that said Nevermore2009.com. After the dance, traffic spiked to the site, which promotes Baltimore's yearlong celebration of Edgar Allan Poe.
"It's not always a traffic generator," Rowe admits. "We just want a conversation happening about Baltimore."
Other businesses, of course, want much more than conversation. And as unpredictable as Twitter is as a Web traffic generator, its route to the bank is even less direct. But based on what Malis has seen so far, he thinks tweets just might pack profit potential.
No matter. Goff, who's still basking in the attention, thinks the tattoo was worth it.
His grandparents, he acknowledged, might think otherwise.
