  We study the estimation of an infinitesimal rotation of a spin-j system,
characterized by two unknown phases, and compare the estimation precision
achievable with two different strategies. The first is a standard `joint
estimation' strategy, in which a single probe state is used to estimate both
parameters, while the second is a `sequential' strategy in which the two phases
are estimated separately, each on half of the total number of system copies. In
the limit of small angles we show that, although the joint estimation approach
yields in general a better performance, the two strategies possess the same
scaling of the total phase sensitivity with respect to the spin number j,
namely $\Delta\Phi \simeq 1/j$. Finally, we discuss a simple estimation
strategy based on spin squeezed states and spin measurements, and compare its
performance with the ultimate limits to the estimation precision that we have
derived above.
