Everyone I know that has any sort of intelligence know about bitcoin. Why? Because I've told them. I frequently comment on politics in casual conversation, and any time I've got someone who can obviously reason, I divert to economics/currency issues, and bring up bitcoin. Most have heard about it already, but know nothing about it. I usually tell them something like "It's like emailing money, but there is no central bank, corporation, or government controlling it." Pretty much everyone hates one of the three. Their questions direct the conversation after that. It get's easier to more you talk about it. At first it was hard to answer questions eloquently. I've got 7 people who are holding bitcoins now, that weren't when I talked to them. Two years ago there was 0, and even friends that were well versed in economics, monetary policy, and markets were unaware of bitcoin. We're up at least 50x since then, but it's still a very insignificant figure.
I know people who thought mining was "generating free money" hahaha
