Many investment promotion agencies are just as keen to court start-ups as they are large multinationals, but their approach to attracting these smaller, more fragile companies may benefit from being more hands off than with their larger, established counterparts.

Data centres are becoming increasingly essential business assets, and as many companies realise their need for such facilities, so too are locations across the US waking up to the economic benefits of hosting these large, power-hungry sites.

While most investment promotion agencies are yet to define a social media strategy, there is almost unanimous agreement that such a strategy can prove key to investment promotion efforts.