Why Aren’t We Using YouTube To Raise Awareness Of Alternative Fuels?

Millions of users worldwide visit YouTube on a daily basis, and the platform has proven itself capable of influencing public ideas and thoughts.

This begs the question, why aren’t we utilizing this tool to raise awareness (and normalize) of alternative fuels and their uses? 

YouTube’s Influence

We already know that well-known YouTubers can massively change the way younger generations think, especially those brought up heavily using the video-sharing platform. 

The younger generation consumes media over the internet in larger quantities than any other generation. Users often turn to YouTube as a means of education and not merely use it for entertainment. Also, it has been shown to change consumer behaviors and purchasing decisions. This is because people consult YouTube for reviews on a variety of products before making a purchase. 

Millions of content creators online are uploading videos of their reviews. They can even popularize their opinions if they buy youtube subscribers or already have a broad reach. If they are giving positive reviews of products, is it inevitable that the public will follow? Influencer marketing has already been proven effective, so there is simply no reason not to use it for better purposes than marketing cheap products.

How Does This Apply To Alternative Fuels

Alternative fuels need to be embraced by the public first and not by Big America. Many people think that large corporations set trends, and the public follows. This is far from the truth. In fact, the opposite is more likely to happen and has occurred several times in recent history.

Corporations are businesses, and businesses need profit. In order to be profitable, a business must make more money than it spends; it’s that simple. If the public moves toward a trend, we can expect that corporations will try to “profit” from the public by providing products that follow the trend too.

Why Influencer Marketing Isn’t Working For Alternative Fuels

Although alternative fuels are meant to be cheaper than traditional (carbon-emitting) fuels, the upfront cost of using them is high. Often the consumer needs to purchase completely new equipment to use alternative fuels. 

Almost a third of the United States’ carbon emissions can be traced to automotive vehicles. For most Americans, switching to an alternative fuel source (such as using an electric vehicle) requires the purchase of an entirely different car. More so, electric cars are much more expensive than their counterparts.

This only makes it more difficult for Influencer marketing to have an impact on the purchasing behaviors of their followers in this regard. The public may want to use alternative fuels, but until there is a financially viable way for them to do so, they are unlikely to follow in the footsteps of any influencer. 

What Can Be Done?

If influencer marketing isn’t an effective option to move the public towards using alternative fuels, we need to find other ways to raise awareness of its advantages. Lobbyists should find ways for the issue to infiltrate media that is not directly related. 

YouTube videos mentioning alternative fuels should not only be visible to those that seek out information on the topic. Rather, we should aim to bring the topic even if a user is searching about other, unrelated topics. Hollywood was successful in making cigarette smoking appear fashionable in the past, by creating leading roles that smoked. Why can’t we learn from them, and make alternative fuel fashionable somehow? It may be a slow movement towards our target, but climate change will not wait for us, so we may need harsher methods and more obvious tactics. Alternative fuels shouldn’t be viewed as an innovation for the future, instead we should see them as futuristic methods we can use in the present.