The problem is simply the fact that FIRST is not something that the vast majority of people can relate to. It's kinda like looking at the Teen Fiction section of any bookstore nowadays: FIRST is that lonely science-fiction epic amidst the sea of vampires, sparkly vampires, vampire werewolves, vampire fairies, werewolf fallen angels wearing tutus... and zombies. Some people will pick up that lone little volume, but most of those who will are people who already enjoy the science-fiction genre.
When I think of YouTube, the first two things that come to my mind are music videos and The Annoying Orange. That basically sums up what most viewers are looking for: Popular culture and comedy. The original Annoying Orange video has 137,578,367 views... And just what
is it? Some basic animation/video manipulation skills, and mindless humor. It's that simple to get people's attention.
We need to find ways to make FIRST relatable to the general population. We need to breathe some humor into it, we need to incorporate things people will recognize (like current world events, urban legends, internet memes, etc.), and we need to hype up just how epic robotics can be (yes, this means both "epic wins" AND "epic fails." Sometimes the fails are more appealing than the wins.
) Then, once FIRST has a following on YouTube, teams can start getting more serious all over again.