Basical postprocessing involves fiddling with the color temperature,chromatic aberration removal,sharpening,exposure asjustments.
The raw file is better than the jpeg because it can store much more stuff.
8 bits vs 12 bits means that a burnt sky may be recovered from the raw whereas it couldn't be done the same from the jpeg.
It doesn't mean you have to go nuts
,altough you can if you want.
A jpeg is already being processed by the camera so it looks appealing and cool but to obtain much more control over different parameters raw is the right choice
Am i clear?
Just do the simple things,check the hystogram first as it can't lie to you like a non-calibrated monitor can.Adjust the exposure,fiddle with the black point,the shadows,get rid of that hazy look by touching the contrast bar.
Then zoom to 100% and try to eliminate CA and make your pic sharper(if required)with the sharpness command(whatever its called).
You see,maybe sometimes the jpeg is more than enough to get yourserlf a good picture for your showoff.Sometimes,when things get tough,raw kicks in and gives you that extra room to work with.