Once you have sold your client on a package, it’s time to choose a provider. If you are using sites like Fiverr or GigBucks, follow the directions given earlier to screen potential contractors. Don’t put your faith in a brand new sign ups with no feedback or rating.

Even with verified contractors with plenty of good feedback, check to see if all the feedback comes from only one or two people. If someone has received 25 comments and they all come from the same three people, odds are they aren’t solid recommendations.

Also, don’t go for the biggest possible numbers for the price. If someone is offering 5,000 Twitter Followers for $5, odds are many of the accounts come from “bot” networks and are pretty much worthless. Look for offerings that include the words “real”, “active”, and “photo”, and offer hundreds rather than thousands of followers. The same holds true for Facebook.

Remember to check the queue and delivery estimates. If someone has a delivery time of 10 days and there are 30 people in queue, they may be too busy to take on more work.

If at all possible, test drive potential vendors on a few of your own dummy accounts first. This way if you unhappily run across someone using less than admirable tactics your client won’t be the one getting suspended or banned from their social networks.

Having several vendors who do good work also gives you a “Plan B” for when something goes wrong. Vendors are people with lives just like you, and sometimes sickness, an accident or a family situation can keep deadlines from being met.

If a provider misses a deadline, you can simply contact the next one on your “approved” list and make sure the work is done in time to meet your own deadline.

As mentioned earlier, try not to spend more than one third of your own price on outsourcing, and no more than one third of the time it would take to do the entire job yourself. This gives you a comfortable profit margin.