What do you do about socal media when you are part of an industry that has not embraced it?

This is my current dilemna. Having worked in the fiberoptics industry for many years, I have been approached by Marketing Directors of small FO companies, asking "Why should I have a Facebook page?" or "How can I justify the cost of setting up and maintaining a Twitter account or a blog...?" Since I am a true believer in the power of Social Media Marketing and feel it is here to stay (will evolve, but won't go away), I can generally give good information and examples of how SM can help a company.

But... here it comes... it is difficult to convince companies that this is worthwhile when other companies from their industry are not active in social media. Who is a small fiberoptic company going to reach if other companies and potential customers are not engaged? It's not just fiberoptics. There are many industries out there that are not involved in social media widely enough to attract a good number of companies to join in.

So, how do we solve this problem? I can't say for sure what will work, but relative to the industry I have been involved in the most, I am proposing the following:

Start with industry groups and news outlets - they are generally involved in social media at least a bit and they have mailing lists. See if they will send a call out to their members/readers to get active and help to build a useful online community.

Find the few from the industry who are active (there are generally a handful from any industry trying things out) and reach out to them to contact their customers/vendors and encourage engagement.

Encourage industry trade shows to bring in at least 1 speaker on social media marketing to inform and encourage companies to engage and to share some much desired statistics,...

I can't say for sure that this will have the desired effect, but it's worth a try. I'm off to put together a nice note to send out to some news and trade associations to see if I can jump start this.  I'll let you know in a few months if I make any headway in the Fiber Optics market and we can take it from there!