I'm starting to build an "audience," but how do I build a community?
Do I invite people to a slack channel? How can I engage people in a group setting?
Should I be active in a discord / slack channel every day? Etc.
Please share your tips, I'm new to this!
I think building an audience is a good first step. Once you get people genuinely EXCITED about your product, and USING your product, then invite them to your community.
There's no point in inviting people to a Discord if people are still kind of a "meh" about the product. Once people are genuinely excited though, it can take off :)
I'd say build up HYPE first. Start a newsletter and when it reaches 100x you create a Discord. When it reaches 1000x you create a forum/app.
Build it up in layers, converse with people where you build your audience, start inviting them to chat, to events, to interesting community activities.
But also crucially ask yourself - why would people join your community? What's in it for them?