1. A method comprising: storing, in a social networking system, a first set of associations between a plurality of users and a plurality of objects maintained by the social networking system, and a second set of associations between pairs of the plurality of users; identifying a target object maintained by the social networking system; identifying a first set of users associated with the target object from the stored first set of associations, the first set of users comprising a plurality of users; determining a first set of affinities for the first set of users, the first set of affinities comprising an affinity for each of the first set of users for the target object; identifying a second set of users associated with at least one of the first set of users from the stored second set of associations; determining a second set of affinities for the second set of users, the second set of affinities comprising an affinity for each of the second set of users for at least one of the first set of users; weighting at least one of the first set of affinities with the second set of affinities to produce a weighted set of affinities; generating an influence metric associated with the target object based on the weighted set of affinities, the influence metric representing a relevance of the target object to the set of users as a whole; and storing the influence metric.