It does still work, as I use it all the time. Here's how to do it.
Find the item that you want to link in your social. If you don't happen to have the item you want, and it isn't a no-trade item, you can go into the bazaar to the buyer stalls, open up the /buyer window, and search for the item you want. Or you can ask someone to link it if it is no-trade.
Turn your /log function on (i.e. /log on). Open the item's info window and issue a ";tell <item link>" command. You should get a message that looks similar to "Could not find player 006F3400000000000000000000000000000000000026C357E8Spell:". This particular message was for the item "Spell: Bliss". The hotlink code for this item is "006F3400000000000000000000000000000000000026C357E8", which you get from the message it gives you.
Go into your hotkeys in-game, and create your hotkey. For example, a mez hotkey might look like:
/g >>> %T <<< is MEZZED
Then quit EQ completely, go into your yourname_server.ini file, and locate the hotkey you made. Go into your log file and locate the hotlink code for whatever item you want. Copy that code and paste it into the hotkey in your .ini file. If you want different text to show up, leave a space after the code and enter the text there. In my example, I want it to hotlink the name of the mob being mezzed, so I put "%t" after the code.
Now, the hotlink will not work unless you put a box like this "" before and after the hotlink code/text. You'll probably have to copy and paste it from this message. The final result should look like this:
/g >>> 006F3400000000000000000000000000000000000026C357E8 %T <<< is MEZZED
Save your .ini file and go back into EQ to test out your new hotkey.
EDIT: Okay, the "" box looks different on these forums, but if you copy that ""character and paste it into Notepad you should get the correct little box.