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Brian Solis thinks deep thoughts about the way people find and consume content today. Any and all content.

We can’t point to any companies hiring, in his words, the “new CEOs–chief editorial officers…journalists, editors, and freelancers (that) transform (company) media-rooms and blogs into veritable newsrooms”.

But, hey, if it generates leads, grows revenue and cuts the cost of selling we’re all for it.

Your company may not be looking for a chief editorial officer just yet but you don’t really need one to create the kind of content that draws the right audience, creates the right impression about your offerings and, above all, compels the right action by the people you want to act. Just remember the basic ingredients: what it is that makes one company’s material superior to others’ in the eyes and minds of buyers. Superior, or so-called “remarkable” content, contains four basic qualities:

1. It’s relevant. It delivers immediate gratification. Here’s where and why you really need to know your audience, users, and prospects because you must anticipate their desires, needs and interests. What do they have a burning interest to know? What do THEY NEED to know about your solution? This is all about what they want to know, not what you want to tell them. All that matters is what they are trying to find out. It’s on you to know what this is.

2. It’s unique. At least it’s unique to you and your brand. This means your voice, your take, your analysis and your interpretations that are uniquely your own. (Simple example: quotes in a press release should be written as if you’re being quoted in a face-to-face conversation with a customer, not like a letter from one lawyer to another. This is what is meant by authenticity.) Think of this attribute as the opposite of a “me, too” product feature. Why should someone care about (read) your stuff if they can get the same stuff just about anywhere else? Hint: if they can, they will. This is self-defeating, to put it politely.

3. It’s appealing. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing in way that reflects professionalism and expertise. Yours! Typography, videography, photographic quality, etc., must be redolent of high-production value. If it has your name on it, you want it packaged accordingly. It’s no coincidence that sticky content is content elegantly presented.

4. It’s engaging. We’re talking language here. The use of words. Just as most of us tend to skip disclaimers, legalese, terms-and-conditions and package-inserts, passive writing is the written equivalent of tryptophan. Engage the reader the way you wish to be engaged: with vivid word pictures that make the topic come alive with real-life anecdotes to substantiate your claim that you understand their world because you live there, too. Never forget that your readers will judge your products and services through your content.

Google just made a rare post to their Webmaster Central Blog. You can check it out here.

And, to ensure that the quality of everything you publish would pass Google muster as described above, here are some observations of our own:

What makes one piece of content superior to another today, especially when it comes to getting found online? According to Google, it’s nothing more or less than the quality that compels a reader to bookmark it, share it or recommend it. This means that social signals come into play to a great degree, as in social media.

Here are the questions you need to ask about everything you present to customers and prospects to ensure that your offerings are not only easy to find, but presented in the right context and contain the earmarks of authority they deserve. Note that this is what we at WriteAngle do routinely on your behalf:

1. What makes the information you’re presenting trustworthy and why would a reader recognize it as such?

2. What makes you confident that the material reflects expertise in the subject matter? Put another way, why are you confident that it would not be dismissed as shallow or thinly-veiled promotional fluff?

3. Again, in the case of website content, would you be comfortable sharing confidential information (contact, credit card, etc.)?

4. Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?

5. What have you done to differentiate your content from that associated with “content farms” (e.g., are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines)?

6. Does the material provide original information, reporting, research, or analysis?

7. Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?

8. Why do you assume your existing customers would feel compelled to share it with their peers and associates?

These questions are our interpretations of the points Google raises in its post. We point them out because they substantiate and reaffirm our insistence that your content be well-written and obtainable exclusively from you. Your content must be your content.

Note also that Google intends to make hundreds of search-engine improvements in 2011 — more reasons to plan for identifiers that make your content unique and high-quality. These should include social-sharing buttons to prompt users to pass it along.

Testing and measuring the content you put online is faster and easier than ever today.  And budget-friendlier.  Which headline will draw a bigger response?  Which approach will visitors prefer?  Which offer?  Which tone?  Here are 20 tips on how to perform basic A/B testing:

1.  Don’t test a page you already suspect is weak.  Test something you believe is doing a good job.  You may be surprised.

2.  Use an overlay page (one that shows up when a respondent does something) when the visitor chooses the leave an “offer” page.  The overlay should remind the visitor of something that will entice them not to leave and get them to think “What the hell, I’ll fill out the form”.

3.  Get up and stand away from your screen. Take a look at your page(s) from five or six feet away.  What jumps out?  What attracts the eye?

4.  Make the “Download Now” words big and clear.

5.  Use separate buttons for different demographics or different categories of customer.

6.  The word “enterprise” is stronger than “corporate”.  People don’t think of themselves as corporate.  They identify with working in an enterprise.  Don’t you?

7.  Begin your order forms on the page that first mentions them.  Don’t make visitors go somewhere else.

8.  Use images of people, not products.

9.  Test all images of people for positive responses.

10. Don’t spend money on testing.  There are plenty of free tools out there.

11.  If you hire a vendor, remember that the best ones will guarantee results.

12. Your test should run three weeks (15 business days).

13. Measure all ongoing traffic simultaneously.

14. Start by testing something small.  A page, a portion of a page, a few lines, a small campaign.

15. Seek to drive down your cost-per-visitor and your cost-per-conversion.

16. Determine your most important metrics as dictated by your business model, business plan, sales and marketing objectives.  Your particular business mission.

17. Test pages that are politically “neutral”, at least at first, before you test your boss’s pet page to show how lame it actually is.

18. Work closely with your IT people.  Make sure that something you set up to test doesn’t bring down your site or cause a sudden, prolonged downturn in traffic.  Make sure there is a quick fix at hand.

19. Test early and often.  Google does (and they’re pretty smart).

20. Test one or two things at a time.

What are you doing to ensure you’re content is the best it can be?