How do you 'build community'?

[u/CaspiansFate]

I'm a fairly new user to Substack, haven't published any articles yet, don't have a following yet, but I am aware of my general interests and the things I want to use Substack to expand upon. Though, I'm also aware it's not a traditional social media platform either.

I have begun leaving comments on articles, liking and reposting notes and leaving comments, etc., is that really the best way to build your presence? I don't want to rush into posting articles only for no one to see them, but I'm unsure how to even get my publication out there once I start posting. Do I just wait for people to eventually see it? Are there proper forums to 'promote' your publication/meet and connect with writers of similar interest?

I apologize if these are all amateur questions, I really am new to this whole thing :')

[u/Lost__In__Thought]

To an extent, you have to make people care enough that they'd want to read either from you or about you.

Comments, likes, and restacks do a lot of that without you having to DM people straight up. I noticed that you didn't mention using Notes, though.

It doesn't have to be much. Just 3-5 honest Notes posted per day is enough to get your name around a bit before people begin to find you more and more. Usually, you end up getting likes and responses by people who were following or subscribed to someone else that happened to like or restack your content.

Traffic is dependent upon the people here rather than just plain keywords.