I think Stoney is on the right track here, but the only thing that's missing is that this question cannot be answered correctly without actually knowing the industry and current leaders. There are different industries and topics that Google has different tolerances for. If authority websites on your topic commonly have/receive lots of backlinks from bloggers, you have more room to play with in this area. Also, social media is not a requirement for SEO. We've seen plenty of sites outranking competitors with no social presence at all. There is no one formula for what SEO should look like across all industries. The only place I'd say you're definitely looking at raising a red flag is with the anchor text. In your example you said you'd want thousands of links back using the same keyword. Chances are, no matter what your topic or industry, that's going to look very out of the ordinary. A natural looking, balanced link portfolio is really key these days in offsite optimization. You'll get all sorts of people these days that tell you to "build content people love" and SEO just happens. That's not the case, especially in an industry with any competition at all. SEO is a deliberate, calculated marketing strategy. If you feel that you're in an industry that's even remotely competitive, then I'd recommend seeking out an SEO agency with a solid reputation. If you're bootstrapping a business and looking to do whatever you can on your own, then I'd start by educating yourself on SEO from reliable resources such as: https://moz.com/learn/seo. (I'm not affiliated with Moz in any way). Best of luck!