LIVE FROM APP PROMOTION SUMMIT 2014: Twitter’s recently rolled-out app discovery tools give developers the opportunity to “showcase content-rich applications in a very, very compelling way”, Ross Sheil, EMEA mobile specialist for the company, said this morning.

“Twitter is a content distribution platform. And as a subset of that, users are also on the platform to discover applications, and that’s behaviour we’ve seen exist organically since day one,” he said.

The company introduced a new app promotion service worldwide earlier this month, which Shiel said enables developers to address its 255 million monthly active users worldwide.

“We’ve evolved significantly beyond a text-driven platform that Twitter was, it’s now a visually engaging medium,” he said.

The new tools also see the company embracing a new charging model, being based on users clicking through to app stores rather than simply for engagement.

“Brands love engagement, performance marketers less so. Now you only incur costs for any user action that results in a click to the app store. So any other action, like retweets, favourites, replies, no marketer will incur any cost,” he said.

But obviously, the social element of Twitter remains an important part of the app promotion proposition.

“Those actions are still incredibly important, and if any of those actions occur, it’s all free media, its virality for your application,” he continued.

Shiel advised developers that in order to make the most of Twitter as an app discovery platform, they should focus on delivering compelling tweets to entice users. “Consumers on our platform demand and expect visually engaging content, rich media. That’s where we’ve seen our advertising partners be most successful,” he observed.