“Facebook is a platform for people to get more out of their lives,” writes former FORTUNE IT editor David Kirkpatrick in his book, The Facebook Effect. Mr. Kirkpatrick calls the social media network a “technological powerhouse with unprecedented influence across modern life” and an “entirely new form of communication.” But Mr. Kirkpatrick also describes the rise of commercialism in social networks and in the words of New York Times’ tech columnist David Pogue, how “shrewd marketers do incredible business” on them.

The just-released survey results of McKinsey & Company’s fourth annual Web 2.0 survey provide a glimpse into how incredible. Perhaps most significantly among the results, respondents showed “tight integration” of these technologies and increased market share. In other words, firms that most energetically – and presumably intelligently – embrace Web 2.0 reap the most significant bottom-line results.

McKinsey acknowledges that it’s probably still too early to strategically estimate the impact of social marketing and communications tools on business results. But these preliminary findings suggest clichés reminding us that something worth doing is worth doing wholeheartedly hold true when it comes to Web 2.0. Thirty-one percent of survey respondents whose companies utilize six or more Web 2.0 technologies increased market share above their nearest competitor compared to 20% of respondents using just one or two technologies. That’s a better than 10-point spread.

The survey attracted 3,249 executive respondents from a range of regions, industries, and functional areas. The report says that McKinsey “asked them how they are using Web 2.0 technologies, what types of benefits they derive, and whether those benefits are translating into hard business results.” Web 2.0 refers to an expanding range of technologies. The most favored by respondents include Social Networking (63%), Blogs (48%), Video sharing (42%), Wikis (35%), and Podcasts (32%).

Executives in the Philippines should find these results of interest. Although data is hard to come by for many of these tools, www.checkfacebook.com estimates that there are 14.6 million Facebook users in the Philippines as of July 4 – or about half of all Internet users in the Philippines – making it the eighth largest market for the social network in the world. Only Canada, Italy, France, Turkey, Indonesia, the UK, and the United States have more users. Over the last 12 months, the Philippine user base has grown better than 400%, and according to webanalyticsworld.net, Facebook is the number one website in the Philippines.

The McKinsey study also showed that the extent of Web 2.0 integration into a company’s communications strategy significantly impacts the bottom line. Thirty-three percent of respondents who indicated that their companies have “very” and “extremely” integrated Web 2.0 technologies said they have gained market share above their biggest competitor, compared to 22% who had not integrated Web 2.0 “at all.” Interestingly, half-hearted integration worked about as well as doing little or nothing at all, driving home the notion that Web 2.0 strategy must be embraced, not air-kissed.

Sixty percent of respondents indicated that Web 2.0 had at least some impact on bottom-line profitability. Twenty-four percent said their organizations saw profitability gains between four and greater than 10%. Utilizing Web 2.0 for internal uses and working with external partners and suppliers showed similar impact on profitability, supporting the notion that Web 2.0 can do far more than increasing interaction with customers.

Other benefits were also apparent. When asked if Web 2.0 tolls and technologies facilitated greater sharing of information, 81% of respondents said yes. Seventy percent responded that information flows “are becoming less hierarchical,” and 67% said “collaboration across organizational silos is increasing.” Sixty-eight percent of respondents said tasks are being handled more professionally, and about half noted increased collaboration between internal and external people. Responsibility for managing Web 2.0 initiatives varies, depending on their purpose. When used internally, respondents indicated that IT departments most often take the lead (61%). But for interacting with customers, 74% of respondents said that engagement is driven by marketing. Dealing with external partners and suppliers is pretty much evenly divided between IT and marketing, although the partnerships themselves play an important role.

For the skeptics that have been sitting on the sidelines, the McKinsey study – and others – show that online communications and Web 2.0 is far more than a set of productivity tools. It is an increasingly effective way to do business. It’s the SocMed effect.