A Fortune Global 500 company has given up on Twitter after growing disillusioned with the lack of engagement.

Austria-based construction firm STRABAG SE, which has 75,000 employees and revenues of almost $17.5 billion, had been using Twitter primarily as an investor relations channel.

Speaking to IR Web Report, Paula Rys of STRABAG’s investor relations team said: “We do not see any benefit in using this social media tool for the time being. Stakeholders did not discuss actively with us on Twitter despite our efforts to ask questions.

“When we were contacted through Twitter it was either by a social media consultant or by non-construction related companies/persons trying to inflate their follower numbers.”

But last week it opted to quit tweeting as the only people who followed the firm were social media consultants and people seeking to gain followers.

“This is our last tweet for the time being,” said the final tweet. “For up-to-date information on STRABAG visist www.strabag.com Best regards, STRABAG Communications.”

STRABAG joined Twitter on August 05, 2009 and attracted 523 followers by the time it suspended its activity on Friday.

While surprising, the move raises question as to the appropriateness and value of Twitter as a medium for corporate communications. Over an 18-month period, the company had used Twitter to send updates about analyst recommendations, notes about investor presentations and earnings announcements, but was unconvinced that the medium was fostering worthwhile engagement.

Rys added that going forward STRABAG “will only monitor social media activity and will not actively engage” in it.