Power BI Desktop is a free, stand-alone application from Microsoft. You can download it from the Microsoft Power BI web site at https://powerbi.microsoft.com/. It has rich, easy-to-use analytic capabilities and makes it painless to bring in data from a variety of sources.

CloudScope for Twitter is a useful source of social data and in this blog post we'll show how to bring CloudScope for Twitter data into PowerBI Desktop.

CloudScope for Twitter exposes it's data through a series of Web APIs. To easily access these APIs, you'll use the CloudScope Data Connector. Follow these simple steps to get everything set up:

1. Download and install the Power BI Desktop application, if you haven't done so already.
2. Start Power BI Desktop and find the "Preview features" section in the program options. Under "Preview features", ensure that "Custom data connectors" is enabled.
3. Create a "[My Documents]\Power BI Desktop\Custom Connectors" directory.
4. Download the CloudScope for Twitter Custom Connector file CloudScope for Twitter.mez and place it in this directory. If Power BI Desktop is running, you'll need to exit the program and restart it for this new connector to be found.
5. Download the CloudScope Power BI template file and open it in Power BI Desktop. This template includes all of the CloudScope for Twitter reports and data relations. It relies on the Data Connector to load and refresh it's data.
6. You'll be prompted for a CloudScope Account key upon startup. You can get a CloudScope Account key from your CloudScope Account page at https://www.cloudscope.io/account/account-key.
7. Copy the Account key from your account page into Power BI Desktop and click save. Once you do that, Power BI Desktop will begin loading your Twitter data from the CloudScope service. You can view it by clicking on the "CloudScope for Twitter" report.

The Power BI Desktop client is an excellent choice for viewing your Twitter data. Take your time to explore the existing visualizations and try your hand at customizing these or creating entirely new ones. The CloudScope dataset for Twitter is extremely rich and packed with data. There's a lot for you to explore!