Everyone is on social media. And that's not (much of) an exaggeration: There are more than 2.3 billion active social media users worldwide in 2016, according to We Are Social. That number is up 10% from 2015.

With billions of users all over the world, social media is a great platform for sharing your message. But with so many users comes a lot of extra noise. So how do you rise above it and grab your audience's attention?

You may already be following best-practices and boosting your engagement on social media with simple tactics such as pictures in your tweets. However, such a tactical approach helps only after you've already gotten in front of your target audience. With all of the content being daily shared on social media, getting in front of an audience can be a little trickier than you think. But it's not impossible. It takes is the right strategy and a fierce commitment to executing on and regularly revisiting that strategy.

So how do you stand out from the crowd?

As you develop your social media strategy, paying extra attention to a few key details can go a long way toward helping you rise above the noise to get your messages in front of your target audience:

• Remember that frequency and the tone of your posts should vary in accordance with each social platform.
• Ensure your posts have a lot of variety, including curated content, blogs, webinars, e-books, infographics...
• Insert yourself (gently) in social conversations that are already going on throughout different platforms and groups.
• Encourage employee advocacy across social media platforms.
• Develop a paid advertising campaign to reach a broader audience.

Even with all of the automation available for social media, it should never be "set it and forget it." That's true of your strategy, too. Just because you have a sound strategy in place that is working well today doesn't mean the same will hold true tomorrow.