You're going to have an uphill battle convincing regular consumers that bitcoin is useful right now, because it is not accepted in very many places. It's like trying to convince people in 1994 that the internet is useful, or trying to convince people in 1999 that Paypal is useful.
Instead, we have to start by convincing the merchants, because, for merchants, bitcoin is all upside and no downside. For example, Coinbase converts bitcoins to dollars immediately for Overstock, so Overstock never sees any volatility. Unlike credit cards, Overstock doesn't have to worry about charge backs, and Overstock pays much lower transaction fees. There is zero downside for Overstock.
Once we are able to get the merchants to accept bitcoin, the merchants will convince consumers for us, because the merchants desperately want to be paid in bitcoin. For example, tigerdirect is offering a $20 discount to bitcoin shoppers:
http://www.coindesk.com/tigerdirect-offers-discount-bitcoin-shoppers/So, after bitcoin usage becomes more widespread, it will be much easier to convince consumers. If a consumer asks, "Why should I use bitcoin?", we'll say "Because bitcoins are accepted everywhere (including places where credit cards are not accepted), merchants will give you discounts for using bitcoins, you don't have to expose your personal information when you spend bitcoins, bitcoins are far more secure than credit cards, and the value of your bitcoins will increase over time (in contrast to the value of dollars, which decreases over time)."
"It's too volatile"
Once bitcoin adoption increases, the volatility will go down. Until that day, if you are an investor looking to make money, volatility is your friend.
"It'll get hacked or stolen and it's not backed up like my money is at the bank"
All you have to do is find a reputable digital wallet, such as coinbase, which stores the majority of their bitcoins offline in bank vaults. In that case, your bitcoins are as safe as gold bars.
