Cross media targeted message synchronization

A system for sending messages to authors of social media content items, the system comprising:

• a computer processor;
• and
• a computer-readable storage medium storing computer program engines configured to execute on the computer processor, the computer program engines comprising:
• an author store configured to identify a plurality of candidate social media content items broadcasted by a social media source;
• an event airing engine configured to determine a plurality of media events from a time-based media source, the time-based media source independent from the social media source, and including a television media event and an advertisement media event;
• a social media/event alignment engine configured to determine a confidence score for each of the candidate social media content items indicative of a probability that the candidate social media content item is relevant to the television media event and to align a subset of the candidate social media content items with the television media event based on the confidence scores;
• and
• an audience population engine configured to form a population of authors comprising the authors of the subset of the candidate social content items;
• a television show/ad overlap engine configured to determine that the advertisement media event has aired during an airing of the television media event;
• and
• a message selection engine configured to send the population of authors a message responsive to the airing of the advertisement media event.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computer processor, cause the computer processor to perform the steps of:

• identifying a plurality of candidate social media content items broadcasted by a social media source;
• identifying a plurality of media events from a time-based media source, the time-based media source independent from the social media source, and the media events including a television media event and an advertisement media event;
• for each of the candidate social media content items, determining, using the computer processor, a confidence score indicative of a probability that the candidate social media content item is relevant to the television media event;
• aligning a subset of the candidate social media content items with the television media event based on the confidence scores;
• forming a population of authors comprising authors of the subset of the candidate social media content items;
• determining that the advertisement media event has aired during an airing of the television media event;
• and
• responsive to the airing of the advertisement media event, sending the population of authors a message.