We are kinda addicted to twitter

This week we're doing a series about which travel businesses have the best presence on Twitter. We've found that some do it very well, while others haven't seemed to figure it out, while even others started, but now have stagnant accounts.

In looking for the best travel companies on Twitter, we considered things like when their last update was, frequency of tweets, how many people they follow back and interaction with users. Below you'll find the 10 best airlines we found and why we like them.

JetBlue: JetBlue has long been a forerunner in the social media sphere. They were one of the first airlines to establish a presence on Twitter and their positive use and popularity is evident with over 1,500,000 followers. They're often using Twitter to inform travelers of new promotions and their popular All You Can Jet Pass has quickly spread virally each of the last couple years via Twitter.

Southwest: Southwest Airlines is another example of an airline that very early got onto Twitter to use it effectively. Southwest follows many people back, which is often uncharacteristic of many large companies on Twitter. Southwest typically has someone on Twitter duty during flying hours, responding to questions, comments and complaints; turning Twitter into a customer service tool.

EasyJet: EasyJet has a couple different Twitter acounts, EasyJet Care, which is used for customer service inquiries. They're launching their 15-hour blogger challenge in October, in which they send four travel bloggers on a mystery trip in which they will be blogging, tweeting, Foursquaring and Facebooking their trip.

British Airways: British Airways has both a U.S. and a U.K. Twitter account. Some of the things they use Twitter for include discussing new promotions and responding to inquiries. Similar to EasyJet, they also use it to tweet about contests, which currently includes a contest that caters not to the leisure traveler, but to the business traveler and entrepreneur.

Virgin America: Virgin has somewhat created a brand that is the "hip" airline. They often use their Twitter feed to connect with people that other airlines don't, such as wishing happy birthday to customers from time to time. Although they use it to promote special deals and respond to inquiries, Virgin really prides themselves on interacting with customers.

WestJet: WestJet is another example of an airline that doesn't just follow the norm of many company Twitter accounts, but does things to foster interaction. This includes posting articles, videos and photos that promote some of the destinations they visit. One of the most popular things with followers and customers is "Winglet Wednesday", where travelers take photos of WestJet's winglets and post them on Twitter. WestJet features these photos on their different social media accounts.

Air New Zealand: Air New Zealand is one of the few airlines that is following almost as many people as are following them. Air New Zealand frequently talks to their followers who are traveling in and around New Zealand, as about 90% of their feed is just conversations with Twitter users. They also retweet a lot of New Zealand photos and content from Twitter users, that doesn't necessarily directly relate to the airline.

Hawaiian Airlines: Since they provide smaller service than many airlines, Hawaiian doesn't have the same following as many of the major carriers, but they do a lot of things to foster conversation and interaction. This includes their latest promotion, which celebrates the premier of Hawaii Five-O. After each episode, Hawaiian Airlines posts a trivia question and the winner is entered into a drawing for a special discounted round-trip fare.

Cathay Pacific: Cathay Pacific is somewhat new to the Twitter scene compared to many airlines, but they've jumped right in. The Hong Kong airline uses Twitter to talk to customers who are flying to ensure they have a satisfactory flight and respond to customer inquiries and complaints.

Delta: Delta has a few different Twitter accounts that serve multiple purposes, but Delta Assist is our favorite. Delta Assist is what you could call the "crisis management" arm of Delta on Twitter. Delta Assist actually has a team of nine employees that run the account, with the names of each team member. They then put their initials by each tweet, which adds a personal touch to the user experience.

To follow these and many other of your favorite carriers, check out our growing list of airlines that tweet their way around the internet, with our handy CheapOair airlines twitter list.