Network virtualization provides a powerful way to run multiple networks over a shared substrate and has been recognized as a key enabler for overcoming the perceived ossification of the current Internet. This article addresses a specific aspect of network virtualization, virtual network embedding (VNE), which primarily refers to the efficient mapping of virtual resources onto physical ones. Specifically, influenced and inspired by the intersection of recent trends in network virtualization, social network analysis, and service-centric future Internet architectures, in this article the scope of the VNE paradigm is extended by including socio-aware features. Toward this direction, appropriate social-based metrics are introduced, and the conventional VNE objective of minimizing the cost of embedding a request into the substrate under certain physical constraints is extended by considering an additional objective related to the social features of the physical network. An evaluation of the proposed socio-aware VNE paradigm with respect to several aspects and metrics (i.e., accounting, social) is provided and critically compared against conventional VNE approaches. The corresponding results and observations support the vision of paving the way to adopting social-aware virtualized topologies for fostering specific applications within the future Internet paradigm. Finally, the adaptation and prototype of a socio-aware resource mapping approach on a wireless virtualized testbed is summarized, serving as a proof of concept.