Look sharp online

I just recently started getting some activity with my linked in account and before three months ago i had no care in the world about linked in. But from what i have seen here recently more and more organization are using as a tool to look for and distinguish potential employees. I had heard professors talk about and explain how we needed to polish up our accounts but i never new how efficient they can actually be. Is this the next big business world boom or bust? It seems to like this is a much more convenient and cost efficient tool to use than the ways of old. how much money could one organization save by taking a few hours to find potential employees than searching high and low from competitors or other fields to try and find someone else. I know this is frowned upon by some but how much easier would it be to contact a competitors star guy/girl privately through linked in than to call them all the time and try and set up appointments. Now i don't see linked in going much further than it already has because i cant think of how much farther it can go but who knows, I'm sure ill use it one day as a hiring tool for my business.